THE 
BELOVED  ADVENTURE 


JOHN  HALL  WHEELOCK 

Author  of  "The  Human  Fantasy." 


BOSTON 
SHERMAN,  FRENCH  &  COMPANY 

1 1»  i  | 


COPYRIGHT,  1!>1 .' 
SHERMAN,  FRENCH  &  COMPANY 


Acknowledgment  should  be  made 
to  Scribner's,  Harper's  Monthly,  The 
Century,  The  Smart  Set,  The  Forum 
and  The  American  Magazine  for 
permission  to  reprint  many  verses 
which  first  appeared  in  their  pages. 


580767 


CONTENTS 

si:  \ 


ALONG    THE    DUNES     . 

MKM<  )KIES 
BY      THE     PAVILION 
SLKKl'LKSS       NIGHT       . 

STORMY       DAY  jl, 

MooN  -DAWN      .      . 

NOON 


AUTUMN  NIGHT  . 
M'  -KNING-DKIOAM 


HYMN     FROM    THK    BEACHES 


.      . 


.      .      .      13 
.      .      .      1} 

.     .     .     if, 

.      .      . 

A    NIGHT    BY    THK 

A    SWIM    AT    SUNSET    . 

AS         ...  X 

MOONLIGHT      NIGHT 
THK    BOUND   OF    THE   SEA    .'.'.'.'.'.'.      ^  i 

POEMS  OF  PITY 

THB      FANATIC  2q 

TO     ONE     ASLEEP     . 

DECLARED    HH    WAS 
......  •>  t 

TO    AN    "OLD    MAIL 

WOMAN     IN     Til!-:    CAFI-: 
TO   A    LITTLE    CHILD    . 
SONG   AT  TWILIGHT       .      . 

KvSiHB."?1!NIN'::STAI:  .  :  :  :  .  ;  ;  I 

MISCELLANEOUS 

POETRY  4- 

THI-:    LOST    LAND 
JI-STIKI'-ATION      . 

Tl"-'  ND  THI-:  YOUNG'  GH:I 

OANY  i"*Ai:«Ni,: 

--' 

-.  THE  ABDUC 

VAMPIRJ  .........  _     51 


Rirsic 

LETT  A  . 
M«  II:.\L\«  ; 
DI8CONT] 

MKM«»I;Y        ... 

TIM-:  u  .\  LI:    .     . 

NO     , 

TO     A     BRIDE      . 
ON   THE  TOMB   OF  A    L 


62 
62 
63 
64 

55 
65 
66 
57 


CONTENTS 

PACK 

TO    THE   MODERN    MAN 57 

REBIRTH 58 

SORROW   AND   DAWN 60 

THE     INSPIRATIONS 60 

MEMORIES    OF    FIRST    LOVE 61 

A    LAST    CRY 61 

SONGS     OF     THE    WORLDLING 63 

LOVE'S       RESURRECTION 64 

THE  VOICE  OF  THE   SPRING 65 

"THE   WAGES   OF   SIN    IS    DEATH"    ....  66 

TO  THE  AVERAGE  MAN 67 

EPITAPH         68 

CREDO 68 

NOW GJ* 

CRADLE-SONG 70 

YOUTH 71 

WINTER     NIGHT 71 

PITILESS    BEAUTY 

ESTHER 73 

LIFE 77 

MOON-MIST 7S 

COR      CORDIUM 80 

A    GIRL'S    EYES 81 

A      LOVE-SONG 83 

APRIL  IN   NEW   ENGLAND *3 

MIDNIGHT 84 

THE    GREAT   KINDNESS 

TO   A   YOUNG   GIRL  HEARD  SINGING    .     .     .  I 

SICKNESS 91 

THE   SPIRIT  OF  LIFE !'3 

THE    WAVE   OF   LIFE ! 

FOR   THEM  ALL 95 

FIRST  LOVE 

LOVE'S  LAUC.HTICK 99 

FIRST      RAPTURE 

THi:    FOREST   OF   DREAMS 100 

LOVE'S      SORROW 100 

r.V    THK    SEA 1' 

I'KKMONITION 1 

AT     DUSK 102 

SONG 103 

•I-!!!-:   MOON  OF  SONG I1 

f.oVE     AND     DEATH 

LOVE     I.ISTKN   TO  THR  OLD  WORDS   AGAIN  10f> 

EVENING-PRAYER T05 

LOVE    AND    THK    UNIVERSE 106 

BONO 1J« 

ri:\lI/TY          10' 

SKA -SI 'ELL,          ]' 

1' 

TO  A    WOMAN lOfi 

MIST  I]0 

SKI.K-SURRKNDER  JJJ 

VISTAS 1 

: ]]- 

''•KNDO 1 

NA1>E  11* 


CONTENTS 


FACE 

DEPARTURE    AT   DAWN    ........  116 

A      CRY      ..............  117 

113R       NIGHT       ..........  118 

NMIIT     AND     MEMORY      ........  119 

TO    THE    EVENING    STAR     .......  120 

AN     EMPTY     HOUSE      .........  l-'O 

I  UK  THOUGHT  OF  HER   ........  122 

NH\V     LONGING     ...........  122 

A     LAST     LETTER     ..........  123 

LAST    WORDS    ............  124 

ACROSS  THE  WORLD   .........  124 

S«»NG     KFTFKNS    ...........  12.'. 

1'HANTo.MS          ............  12.r, 

ILLUSION        .............  126 

FAREWELL         ............  126 

SONG     ..............  127 

EPILOGUE     .............  128 

NARRATIVE  AND  DRAMATIC  POEMS 

CORPUS  EST  DE  DEO   .........  131 

Till-:     DESCENT     OF     QUEEN     ISTAR     INTO 

HADES     ....  ........  134 

TWILIGHT    AND    DAWN    ........  139 

THE   LAST  DAYS   OF  KING   DAVIO    .      .      .      .141 

SEA-VISI'.xs      ............  149 

THE     MOTHER      ...........  154 

LOVE  SONGS 

VICTORY         .............  159 

FLOWERING       ............  160 

;:i:       .............  160 

1  '  >YF     AND     PAIN     ..........  161 

TO     THE     BELOVED      .........  162 

!N<;        ............  163 

AND   THE   THOUGHT   OF   DEATH    .      .  164 

EMPLE    <)F  THK    SOUL    ......  K-f, 

i-nMl'LKTION     ............  166 

ECHOES     ..............  167 

KFI'<  'SSKSSK  >N        ...........  167 

LIFI-:   i'!-:i:suAsivi-:   ..........  168 

THK     KF.Frci-:     ...........  169 

:N«:     IN    SPRING     .........  170 

\NI>    PAIN     .........  1T2 

SLEEPLES  !'  .........  17J 

-      ri:  \YKK      ..........  17:: 

SIM  UN  OW  ..........  1T4 

INKSS    IN    SPRING     ........  174 

M-  »MKNTS      .............  17.'. 

IN     THK     HA  IN     .........  17.r» 


\visn     .........  ITT 

HANDS       ..........    17* 

............. 

\NCE     ............    ISO 

N  I  VERSE  AND  THE  BELOVED   .      .      .180 
f.TATION     ...........   182 

:  \TF.I  >     SON/;  .   183 


CONTENTS 


A    PORTRAIT     ............    187 

A    K  ALLEN   ANGEL    ..........    188 

THE    ANGEL    RETURNS     .  .    189 

SONG    FOR    A    JIG     ..........    190 

DISCORDS      .........  .191 

THE   TWO   SELVES    ..........    192 

A    GLIMPSE    OF    HER    .........    193 

THE     LOST     PARADISE     .  .   194 

A    DANCE    WITH    DEATH        .......    1U5 

ON  AN  OLD  PICTURE   .  .196 

AN    ANGEL   IN    HELL    .........    197 

AN     AUGUST     NIGHT     .........    11)7 

LOVE    KNOCKS    AT    THE    DOOR    .....    19!* 

"FLOWERS  FOR  LOVE  OR  DEATH"   .      .      .      .200 

LOVE    IN    HELL    .  .    200 

HEAVENWARDS    ...........   200 

A      WOMAN'S     HANDS         ........    202 

MEMORY'S      TOUCH       .........   _":; 

PKHIND    THE    MASK     .........    204 

T11K     DEAD     SELF     ..........  1^05 

THORNS          .............    200 

LOVE'S     CRY     ........... 

LOVE'S    ANGER     .....  ....   207 

A    SONG    ..............   209 

A     LAST     APPEAL     ..........    L'O'.i 

BITTERNESS     ............    I'lO 

PARTING  ON  A  BIRTHDAY    .......    211 

THTNDKR     AND     LIGHTNING     ......    Ill 

FIRST    NEWS    ............   212 

LAST     NEWS     ............    114 

AT    A    BEDSIDE     .      .  .211 

TO       HER       .............    216 

FUNERAL     CHAUNT      .........    216 

LIGHTNING         ............   220 

TR  A  NSKIGr  RATION         .........    220 

RECOGNITION         ..... 

ESCAPE  .............    222 

TRIUMPH       .............   223 

SONGS  BEYOND  DEATH 

CONFESSION 

WITH  DRA  WAI  ............    '2'27 

I'HANTASMIA          .      . 

DESOLATION      ............    229 

LAST     RAPTTRI-:     ...........    I1::!) 

MORNING-SLKKP        ..........    L'Ml 

PHANTOMS  ............    L'!2 

THi:      NEW     LOVE   .  .   233 

SLATION       ...........    L'::t 

SPRING-PRAYER          ..........    237 

SAI.TTATK  >N      ............    L':iS 

TRANSFIGURATION         .........    -M!) 

NIRVANA        .............    241 

FAREWKLI  ..............    241 

HAIL  .    242 


COME  to  my  heart,  come  to  my  song,  I  will  give  you 

the  secret, 
Come,  I  will  give  it  to  you  free  as  the  sun  or  the 

wind ! 

I  scatter  my  bounties  under  the  feet  of  all  men, 
Song  was  never  a  chooser  of  persons. 

You  that  have  hated,  you  that  have  loved  me,  come  I 

will  greet  you! 
Come,  I  will  give  you  love !     Song  has  a  bosom  for 

all. 
Not    I,  but  the  Song  that  is  over  me  speaks  to  you 

ringing: 

Think  you  I,  of  myself,  have  made  it! 

Hated    have    you.    or    dearly    loved,    I    love    you    and 

greet  you. 

O   in  the  buoyance  of  Song  where   is  there   room 
for  hate? 

I  whirl  my  hair  in  your  face  for  sheer  defiance; 
Turning  thru,  on   the  brows   I   kiss  you. 


I 
SKA  POEMS 


Tlir  sen  is  wild  and  flecked  with  white, 
The  Junes  lean  dumb  and  drear, 

Something  familiar  in  the  night 
Thrills  me  a  moment  here. 

The  darkness  and  the  salt  sea's  tang, 
They  stab  me  through  and   through 

With  ecstasy, — the  sharp,  sweet  pang 
And  memory  of  you. 


ALONG  THE  DUNES 

Tin    moonlight  makes  the  dunes  seem  pale  and  gray, 
And  the  long  sen-mist   veils  their  lonely  faces. 
Along  the  horizon  in  the  clear,  cold  spaces 

Seaward,  a  few  stars  tremble  in  the  spray 
Of  the  flung  sea's  embraces, 

And  on  the  dunes  still  shimmers  like  a  wine 

The  daylight,  where  the  rose  of  day  grows  tired. 
With   starlight,   and  tonight,  doomed  and  inspired, 

Tlu    whit.-  sea  labors,  line  upon  plunging  line, 
Toward   the   blind   goal   desired 

And   all    the  air  is  dumb  with   infinite   sound. 

One  house  upon  the  dunes  stands  dumbly  yearning 
With   dull,   dark    windows   toward   the    unreturning; 

The  fierce,  eternal  waters  all  around 
Leap  in  the  moonlight   burning. 


SEA  MEMORIES 

THESE  dunes,  these  low,  flat  wastes  and  solitudes  of 

sand, 

Old  scraps,  washed  weeds  and  wrecks  that  the  sea- 
grass  grows  through, 


':*-.••       .  V   ::•:  '•./ 
.    .  Gai;nt  .tynbers  and  de$d  bones  that  strew  this  sterile 

•  *. :  :•* :  .'•*:  Uanfy-n  :.'•'.-.• 

How  they  recall  the  dream  and  memory  of  you, 
The  silence  of  your  eyes,  the  trembling  of  your  hand ! 

Northward  and  to  the  south  the  low  clouds  line  the 

sea, 
The  bleak  and  barren  dunes  lean  forward  with  a 

pang 
And  sudden  sense  of  you, — a  flash  of  memory; 

Here   is   the   fisher-hut,   half   tumbled,   where   you 

sang 

That  dear,   ridiculous   song  and  turned   and  laughed 
at  me. 

And  all   the  rolling  beach,  where  when  the  twilight 

came 
We   wandered; —   this   gray   bluff,   now   bare,   was 

overgrown 
With  straggling  weeds,  the  dunes  reechoed  to  your 

name. 
Through  the  hot  swooning  night  the  shrill  cicadas' 

drone 
Shimmered,  the  heavy  vault  hung  low  with  flame  on 

flame. 

The    arbor    here    is    fallm    wlu-n-    once    we    sat    and 

heard 

The  chill   September  wind  blow  through  the  star 
lit  roof; 


B 

I   we  your  gesture  yet,  when  at  some  foolish  word 
Impious    from    my    lips,    you    turned    in    stern    re 
proof — 
So  seriously  grave,  so  dear  and  so  absurd. 

Ah  those  evenings  vanished,  those  nights  of  long  ago, 
Alas   where   are   they   fled !     The   sea-wind   moans, 

alas — . 

The   sad,  immortal   sea  heaves  tremulously  below 
And  the  dunes  answer  not.     The  sea-birds   wheel 

and  pass. 

The   somber   and   gray   twilight  comes   solemnly   and 
slow. 

How  often  in  the  night  I  waited  for  you  here! 

All.  the  lifted  faee  with  the  white  shawl  above — 
The  sordid,  little  jokes — the  shyness  and  the  fear, 

The    confident,    brave    words    and    solemn    talk    of 

love 
When  in  the  hollow  Vast  the  early  stars  grew  clear, 

The    kisses    and   the   prayers, — O   all    the   words    we 

said. 

Vows  of  eternal  love — all  the  mad  heart  could  say, 
The  glad  enthusiasm  and  hope  of  youth,  all  fled! 
As  a  strange  man  that  laughs  I  look  on  them 

to-day — 
My  pitiful,  old  self,  a  thing  apart  and  dead. 

Do  you  remember  then  one  night  beside  the  shore 

I  vowed  you  all  my   love!      With  quiet   h,i  If  -regret, 
Incredulous  and  sad,  you  wagered  me  before 


4 

A   year   had    waxed    and    waned    I    wholly    should 

forget 
All  the  words  I  whispered,  and  all  the  vows  I  swore. 

And  suddenly  the  sea  was  dark  and  ominous 

And  with  you  within  mine  arms  seemed  dwindled 

to  a  ghost, 
The  sorrowful  sea-wind   grew  lonely  over  us, 

Filled  with  a  new  vague  fear  I  made  my  desperate 

boast, 
Never  should  this  thing  be,  ah  never,  never  thus ! 

How  you  laughed  and  mocked  me,  half  earnest,  half 
in  jest, 

Challenged  me  by  my  boast,  if  it  should  really  be 
That  all  the  love  were  true  which  I  had  so  confessed, 

To  leap  in  as  I  was  into  the  foaming  sea; 
And  how  at  last  I  did,  as  high  as  to  my  breast! 

You    were    not    glad    at    all,    but    half-surprised    I 

thought. 

You  strove  to  keep  your  silence  mysterious  and  wise ; 
Pity  would  not  let  you,  we  kissed  and  we  forgot; 
But  still   I    felt   it  there,  deep  down  behind   your 

eyes, 
The  fear  we  both  divined  and  yet  acknowledged  not. 

Beneath   the    shading   dune   we   watched    the    far-off 

ships 

Wink  friendly  lights  to  us,  and  you  grew  grave  and 
still, 


5 

Leaning  against  my    heart    in    feigned   sleep's  eclipse 
Your    eyelids    sank,    your    lips    were    sad    and    mute 

until 
They  curved  into  a  laugh  beneath  my  laughing  lips. 

Ah  do  you  remember  that  evening  dark  and  dread ! 
White    lightning    to    the    east    along    the    sea-line 

gleamed ; 
Sudden  with  premonition  unbearable  your  head 

Sank   weeping,  while  you  told  me  the  dream  that 

you  had  dreamed 

Of  how  in  a  strange  wood  you   found  me  cold   and 
dead. 

\Veary  and  fearful,  too,  I  tried  my  utmost  art 

To  calm  you,  but  your  fear  took   heart   at  no  re- 
Ifef: 

Till    in    a    passionate    hurst    we  clung  there   heart   on 

heart. 

Each    with    a    wordless    sense    of    some    great    im 
minent  grief. 

A  far-off  moving  fear,  to  banish  us  apart. 

And  hung  there  heart  on  heart  in  impotent  dumb  pain. 
Hut    now    the    thunderous    wrath    had    darkened    all 

the    sky. 
^'e    part.-d      ah.   how   often1),   the   long  white   lines   of 

rain 
Dreneh(d    us.       I    wound    your   cloak    alxuit    to   keep 

you  dry. 
1   ne\(  r  saw  you  more,  nor  heard  your  voice  again. 


6 

Vanished,  vanished,  vanished,  all  crumbled  with  the 
years, 

All  the  promise  broken  and  all  the  dream  undone; 
Even  my  love  of  you  sealed  with  so  many  tears — 

My  golden,  foolish  youth,  alas  where  is  it  gone ! 
No  voice  within  replies,  no  vision  reappears. 

Lo  it  is  autumn  now  and  all  our  summer  passed 

How   many   autumns   gone — the    laughter   and    the 

flowers ! 
Along  the  immense  horizon,  sepulchral  and  vast, 

The  roof  of  the  world's  tomb,  for  a  few  days  and 

hours 
Memory  beats  vain  wings,  and  perishes  at  last. 

Only  the  infinite  Deep,  whereon  the  sea-bird's  wing 
Sinks  wearied,  the  dark  waste  of  wave  on  endless 

wave, 
Fresh  with  the  boundless  breath  as  cool  and  soft  as 

Spring, 

The  solemn  fields  of  sea,  holy  and  green  and  grave, 
Keep  their  eternal  sleep,  nor  change  in  anything. 

The  desert  of  the  sea  where  no  wave  lifts  a  head. 

Unflecked  by  any  sail,  unfurrowed  by  a  prow, 
With  light  and  shade  of  cloud  grows  dark  and  deep 
and  dread; 

Across  the  shadowy  waste,  half-tremulously,  now 
From  twilight  far  above  a  shimmering  light  is  shed. 

Under  the  heaven  of  evening  cloud  beyond  cloud  afar, 
With    murmurs    thronged    and    winds,   and    flecked 
with  streaks  of  white. 


7 
The   somber  waters   move   where   sky   and   cloud-line 

are,— 

The  odor  of  all  the  sea  is  huge  within  the  night; 
Within   her  spray  hangs  drenched  the  jeweled  even 
ing  star. 

Still  the  hand  of  twilight  with  darkness  strokes  and 

stills 
The   somber   and   immense   breast  of   the   swelling 

sea, 
And  the  pale  hand  of  dawn  across  the  darkness  spills 

Her  clear  and  crystal  cup  of  radiant  ecstasy — ; 
The   white,   immaculate   waste   of   morning   sobs   and 
thrills! 

The  hurtling  crash  of  foam  along  her  confines  hurled 
Echoes,    her    voice    is    loud    beyond    the    morning 

stream. 
Tin-  sad  robe  of  the  sea  about  tin-  planet  curled 

Rustics    and    shines    with    night    and    light,    gleam 

answers  gleam 

And  thunder  answers  thunder  along  the  throne  of  the 
world. 

Autumn  is  in  the  air,  the  windy  beach  is  strewed 
With  storm-wash.  (1  weeds  and  wrecks,  and  you  are 

far  away. 
All    things    arc    chan-H  d    and    vanish    like   a   changing 

mood, 
All  things  are  changed,  and  pass,  and  perish  in  a 

day, 
Except  the  enormous  Vast  and  boundless  Solitude. 


BY  THE  PAVILION 

THE  beach  was  silent  in  the  night, 

Covered  with  mist  and  gray. 
The   sea-dunes  under  the  moonlight  night 
Stretched  far  away. 

From  where  the  grotesque  pavilion  stood 
There  came  a  clapping  of  hands, 

From  where  the  grotesque  pavilion  stood 
Beside  the  sands. 

A  tired  old  accordion 

Struck  up  a  sudden  tune — 
The  sound  of  a  squeaky  accordion 

Under  the  moon. 

With  a  gay  air  the  player  played 
The  song  "Sweet  Annie  Moore," 

The  feet  of  the  player  beat,  as  he  played, 
The  wooden  floor. 

And  to  the  tawdry,  pathetic  tune 

A  murmur  of  voices  sang — 
With  dancing  and  laughter  the  panting  tune 

Echoed  and  rang. 

A  sound  of  glad,  old  memories 
The  quiet  music  had— 
Old  human  hopes  and  memories, 
Half  gay,  half  sad. 


9 
So  that,  as  singing  the  dancers  danced 

And  the  thin  music  sighed, 
My  IK  art  It  aped  up  in  my  breast  and  danced, 

And  my  heart  cried. 

For  the  pavilion  and  the  weak  song 

Under  the  starlight  seemed 
Like  something  known  in  a  dream,  and  the  song 

Like  a  song  dreamed. 

And  by  the  shining  September  sea 

I  heard  in  the  squalid  sound 
Something  more  great  than  the  night  or  the  sea 

Reaching  around, — 

Tlu   love  that  links  all  men  together, 

Divided  by  waves  and  wars — 
Tin     sorrow    of   all   hearts   beating  together 

Under  the  stars. 


SLEEPLESS  NIGHT 

OrT-ii>K  the  summer  earth  lies  hot  and  white. 
Through  the  twin  windows  of  the  sultry  room 
Great  ( -hits  of  darkness  and  deep  vistas  loom, 

And  starlit  leafage  in  the  breathless  night. 

And   always  the   va^ue  sea  along  the  coast 

Makes   moan   deliberately  with  ponderous  breath. 
The  world  seems  old  and  tired  unto  death, 

Beneath  the  sleepless  and  the  starry  host. 


10 

O  now,  for  the  first  time,  I  feel  the  weight 
Of  earth's  mortality,  the  bitter  bliss 
Lying  against  the  lips  of  life — the  kiss 

That  cloys  me,  and  the  heavy  yoke  of  Fate. 

Till  patient  dawn  along  the  lonely  rim 
Glimmers  up  sadly,  and  the  stars  retire 
Veiling  their  eyes  before  the  radiant  Fire, 

And  all  the  world  grows  windy,  bleak  and  dim. 

The  hopelessness,  the  utter,  utter  pain 

Of  earth's  dear  common  sorrow  breaks  my  heart. 

I  bow  myself  in  reverence  apart 
And  take  with  tears  the  insatiate  lips  again. 


STORMY  DAY 

DAY  makes  white  the  beaches, 
The  long,  flat,  sandy  reaches 

Shimmer  and  shine. 
Northward  the  dunes  stand  crowded, 
The  sky  leans  cold  and  clouded 

Along  the  line. 

The  sea-wind,  wild  and  veering, 
Dips  on  the  waters  steering 

The  waves  that  roam, 
His  prow  plunges  and  burrows 
And  the  immaculate  furrows 

Break  into  foam. 


11 

From  heaven  to  bellowing  heaven 
The  Mast  of  God  is  driven 

On  waste  and  wave; 
The  billows  turning  and  flashing 
Leap  upward  together  clashing, 

The  waters  rave. 

The  fisher-hut  here  lies  tumbled, 
Creaking  and  wrenched  and  crumbled 

With  t!ir  wind  that  strains. 
The  roof  of  the  old  pavilion 
V   ;rl>y.  shines  washed  vermilion 

From  the  autumn  rains. 

Nature  is  here  in  fashion 
Wild,  and  has  no  compassion 

Toward  hearts   that  stir, 
Storms   and    sea-winds   above    her 
She  knows  not  me,  her  lover 

Is  nought  to  her. 

All  of  the  dreams  that  fill  me, 
Stir  and  delight  and  thrill  me 

She  scorns  at  last. 
All    that    my    heart   would    utter. 
Aghast,  sinks  wings  that  flutter 

Before  her  blast. 

From  the  heaven  to  the  heaven  opposing, 

From  the  dawn  to  the  night   unclosing, 
From  deep  to  height, 


12 

On  the  wide  waste  unbounded 
No  horn  or  gong  is  sounded, 
No  sail  is  white. 

Cruel  and  wild  and  shameless 
Flow  the  fierce  waters  tameless, 

The  wind  that  streams; 
The  sea-bird  rising  on  their  motion 
Screams,  and  the  thunders  of  the  ocean 

Answer  his  screams. 


MOON-DAWN 

ALONG   the   somber   east   the    flower   of    Night    full 
blown 
A  sad  and  sacred  perfume  breathes,  and  the  heavy 

Vast 

The  huge  odor  of  the  sea  fills  with  a  sense  unknown 

Of  mystery  and  sleep.     Dim  twilight  hangs  aghast, 

With  one  pale  trembling  star,  unlit  from  zone  to  zone. 

Bitter  and  sharp  and  sweet,  stern  as  all  things  that 


are. 


•-  vy 

The  odor  of  life  is  here,  wet  sand  and  rank  sea 
weed. 
The  waters,  clear  and  cold,  make  music  from  afar — 

Along  the  low,  flat  sky  recede,  recede,  recede 
The   unwinged   wastes   of   wave   beyond   the   evening 
star. 


13 

But  lo — from  out  tin-  darkness  now,  from  the  clouds 
unfurled 

A  sudden  sword  of  moonlight  strikes   on   sea  and 

land. 

Odor  and  sound  and  light  mingle,  a  breath  is  whirled 
Ecstatic   through    all   things,   that    feel    the  vibrant 

hand, 
Holy,  harmonious  God  upon  the  strings  of  the  world! 

0  Loveliness  !     O  Light !     God  !     O  seraphic  Breath ! 
Radiant  Supreme !     For  this  one  moment  now 

1  thank  Thee,  thank  Thee,  thank  Thee;  I  bless  Thee 

from  beneath — 
I   thank   Thee — I  cannot  say — I  cannot  tell  Thee 

how  ! 
O  Beauty,  thou  atonest  for  all  things,  even  death! 

NOON 

i 
t 

THK  floors  of  the  sea 

Purple   .-UK!    l>la/in«r  and   blue   to  tin-   eastward    lir. 
The  dune -s  to  the  lea 

With  pale,  green  grass  curve  close  against  the  .sky; 
Ecstasy 

Thrills  through  me  like  a  sigh ! 

My  soul  cries  aloud, 

In   tin    he.-ivrn  above  heaven  circling,  steep  beyond 

steep. 

The  wa\«-s  in  a  crowd 

Shimmer  and  huddle  drowsily,  shimmer  and  sleep. 
— The  shadow  of  a  cloud 

Moves,  like  a  ghost,  upon  the  Deep. 


14 

AUTUMN  NIGHT 

THE  sea  is  out  of  breath,  her  waves  are  wroth, 
Along  the  dunes  I  hear  them  far  away ; 
Against  the  barriers  of  the  banished  day 

Night  flutters  like  a  vast,  ungainly  moth. 

Around  my  casement  the  slow  twilight  crawls. 
My  head  sinks  down  upon  the  table   here — 
One  flickering,  flaring  candle  burning  near 

Throws  shadows  on  the  floor  and  on  the  walls, 

And  the  two  windows  shine  out  in  the   gloom 
Like  clear-cut  mirrors.     With  the  August  night 
A  gradual  peace  subdues  me,  pure  and  white, 

A  holy   quiet  brooding  through  the  room. 

It  is  as  if  into  a  somber  deep 

My  body,  drunk  with  death,  sank  drowned  and  lost 
I  send  my  soul  forth  dimly,  like  a  ghost, 

Down  the  long  fields  and  meadows  half-asleep. 

Autumn  is  old  and  sad,  her  slumberous  noises 
Through  the  shrill  starry  hours  drowse  and  drone, 
All  the  long  evening  in  a  monotone 

Up  through  the  window  creep  her  myriad  voices. 

Now  that  the  tumult  and  the  aching  pain 
Of  earth's  dear  heart  has  dwindled  into  rest, 
I,  that  long  ages  slept  within  her  breast, 

Sink  wearied  back  into  her  arms  again. 


15 

MORNING-DREAM 

THK  moon  has  set  behind  the  sail,  the  wind  of  morn 
ing  blows, 
Like  a  perfume  from  the  east,  or  like  a  breath  upon 

the  wave, 

Along  the  east  still  flowers  pale  the  everlasting  rose, 
And  all  the  stars  of  night  are  drowned  within  their 
watery  grave. 

The   Deep   is    white   and   chilly   like   soft   moonlight 

through  a  cloud. 
As  the  odor  of  deep  music,  that  still  dying  never 

dies, 
Is  the  odor  of  your  hair  through  which  your  darling 

head  is  bowed, 
And  the  morning  on  the  waters  is  reflected  in  your 

ryes. 

Look  up,  sweet  love,  and  listen  to  the  waters  as  they 

rhyme — 
Alas  whit  was  that  angry  voice  that  thundered  on 

the  Deep! 
The  voice  of  Death  behind   us  where  the  sea-waves 

chime  and  chime, 

As  voices  sound  that  echo  through  the  silences  of 
sleep. 


16 

Is  it  a  dream  I  dream  with  you  of  something  that  is 

passed  ? 
O  love,  the  shining  coldness  of  the  morning  blows 

through  me, 
While  we  penetrate,  with  prow  that  cuts  the  waters 

vague  and  vast, 
The  hyacinthine  odors  of  the  fresh  and  dawnlit  sea ! 


A  HYMN  FROM  THE  BEACHES 

BETWEEN  dune  and  dune 
The  sea  shimmers  bright 

With    radiant  noon 
And   ponderous  light. 

Resplendent  and  vast 

It   reaches    away, 
The  waves  shine  aghast 

At  the  spears  of  day. 

In  the  flame  of  the  firmament 

All  has  gone  mad 
For  delight  of  his  element — 

0  I  am  glad  ! 

The  winds  and  the  sea, 

The  grass  and  the  sands 
I  drink  into  me — 

1  reach  forth  my  hands. 


17 

Al><>ve  me  and  under 

I  draw   with  each  breath, 
Of  living,  the  wonder, 

The  glory  of  death. 

The  waves  from  the  plain 

Of  the  Deep,  the  dumb  sod, 
Cry  out  for  the  pain 

Of  unbearable  God. 

0  God,  wherever, 
Whoever  Thou  art, 

1  thank  Thee  forever 
With  all  of  my  heart! 

For  force  of  sheer  love 

I  fall  down  at  Thy  feet ! 
I    feel  Thee  above, 

I  bless  Thee  and  greet! 

For  this  that  I  see, 

For  all  things  that  are, 
Whatrver  they  be, 

I  thank  Thee  afar. 

I.ct  us  /ill  cry  in  choir. 

While  wild  with  delight. 
White  hymns  to  Thy   Fin- 

Bright  Godhead  of  light! 


18 

Let  a  holy  and  thunderous 

Harmony  roll 
Over  and  under  us, 

Soul  unto  soul! 


O  steadfast  and 

In  the  wave  and  the  sod  ! 
O  holy  and  high! 

O   Father  and   God! 

Let  all  that  was  ever 
On  earth  or  the  sea 

Make  music  forever 
And  ever  to  Thee  ! 


SEPTEMBER  BY  THE  SEA 

THE  melancholy  mood  of  bleak  September 
Fills  the  forsaken  beach  here  by  the  sea. 
The  gray  pavilion  stares   out  wearily— 

The  old,  wrenched  seats  and  railings  half  remember 
Their  summer  gayety. 

So  desolate — so  windy — so  forsaken — 
A  certain  homesickness  blows  on  the  air. 
The  flagless  pole  seems  sorrowful  and  bare; 

The  wind  pierces  my  breast  enough  to  awaken 
The  memories  sleeping  there. 


19 

Before  his  touch  the  cold  sea  shines  and  shivers, 
The    fallen   arbor  under   which    I    sit 

Sheds  all  its  wrinkled  leafage  bit  by  bit; 
Through  every   leaf  his  breath  rustles  and  quivers, 
Shaking  and  stirring  it, 

And  dips  upon  the  ruffled  waters  foaming. 
In  all  this  desolate  waste  of  dying  day 
The  sand  lies  bare  —  they  are  all  gone  away, 

But  one  did  woman  in  a  blue  shawl  roaming 
Tiie   beach   windv   and   gray. 

No  other  life  there   is.  no  other  motion, 
Only  the  lonely  wind  blows  on  and  on, 
Only   in  a   half-dream    I   dream  upon 

Tlit    eyes  of  one  I  loved,  here  by  the  ocean, 
many  autumns  gone, 


by  tliese   buildings,  by  these  rolling  beaches; 
The  ghosts  of  many  irarish  summer  days 
Seem  now  to  haunt  them,  from  the  westward  blaze 

Of  the  low  sun  a  red  beam  slants  and  reaches 
The  windows  with   its  ra\  s. 

g  t!i.  in   a  dull   liirht    through  the  barred   slmtt-rs. 
The  bathing-ropes  drift  on  the  waves  that  stir 
When-  the  iriy  crowds  of  lau^liinj;  bathers  \\rre. 
Tin-  beach,  listening  to  a  tent-flap  that  flutters. 
Grows    dark   and    drearier. 


20 

They  are  all  gone,  they  will  return — ah  never  — 

Summer  and  joy  and  the  old  love  of  you! 

The  old  woman  there  gathers  her  shawl  of  blue 
About  her,  as  if  she  were  going  away  forever, 

And  I  must  follow,  too. 


ECSTASY 

THE  sea-wind  wails  and  raves 

And  dips  upon  the  sea, 
The  choral  hearts  of  the  waves 

Dissolve   for  ecstasy. 

And   lo — from   deep   to  height 

Melodiousness  profound, 
When  odor,  sound  and  light 

Intermingle  and  sound ! 

A  flash  of  the  beautiful  strength, 

Holy,  harmonious  God — 
Sways  the  waters  at  length, 

Resonant  under  His  rod. 

All  at  His  breath  from  above 

Resounds,  blown  through  and  through. 
O  God — for  utter  love 

I,  too,  cry  out,  I,  too ! 


21 
A  NIGHT  BY  THE  SEA 

A  SEA  SONG 

\VHKN  the  low  murmur  of  the  morning's  laughter, 
Rippling  the  waves,  makes  music  in  my  ears — 

I   dream  on  vanished  things  and  things  here-after ; 
So  near  is  laughter  to  divine,  swret  tears. 

When  in  the  dawn  the  last   star  disappears 

And  dream  on  dream  withdraws  following  after — 

My   heart  leaps  up  with  laughter  in  my  ears; 
So  near  is  grief  to  sorrowful,  sweet  laughter. 

:  the  wind  calls  and  the  waves  follow  after 
And  dune  on  dune  shimmers  and   re-appears — 
I    dare   not   listen  to   voiir  quiet   laughter; 
So  near  is  laughter  to  divine,  sweet  tears. 


A  SWIM  AT  STNSET 

Tin:   Ii-   iv    ii  dp-  us  her  stars,  and   far  under  the  Deep 
Tirelessly,  wave  on   wave,  labors,  where  the  sun 
I.-  ft    the    rim    burning,   and    the    lapsing    waves   one 
bv  one 

Subside    on    the    hori/on,    or    swell    along    the    windy 

surrp 

irlit    sunset,  exultant,  and    undulating  leap 
Forward   on   the   prone  sea's  breast.      ()   visited  of 
none, 


22 

Here  beauty  broods,  where  a  God,  his  work  being 

done, 
Has    slowly   withdrawn,   like   a   sad   voice    fallen   on 

sleep ! 

Now  is  my  body,  all  feverish,  thirsty  for  the  sea. 
Now  let  my  sorrow  slip  like  a  robe  from  my  side. 
Stark,  I  run  to  the  beauty,  to  the  dark  embrace. 
O  hide  me,  cover  me  up,  take  pity  on  me 

Infinite    waters !     Through    the    huddling    of    tfie 

waters   I  glide 

Seaward    forever,    nor    ever   turn    backward    my 
face. 


VISTAS 

WIIKX    the    long    winds    are    come    sorrowing    with 

September 

Over  the  shining  sea  that  moves  in  a  far-off  place, 
Over  the  cold  sea-dunes,  out  of  the  sunlit  space, 

Bowing  the  meadow-grass, — I  remember,  I  remember, 

All  the  vanished  things,  and  all  the  old  strange  days, 
— The  piteous  childhood  heart,  the  visions  long  a<n>. 
The  murmur  of  deep  waters  where  the  cool  winds 
blow ; 

I   will  follow  them  calling,  down  the  autumnal  ways. 


23 

When  the  old  years  fade  into  the  woods  of  September: 
Tin-  \(>ice  of  the  wind's  moan,  crying,  "You  may 

not  go," 
—The  voice  of  the  wave's  sob,  crying,  "You  cannot 

know." 

—The   childhood    heart   crying,    "I    remember,    I    re 
member!" 


MOONLIGHT  NIGHT 

An,  though  I  were  a  ghost, 

To-night  I  should  fare  forth  under  the  host 

Of  tin-  immaculate  stars 

To  seek  you.      Though  beyond  the  utmost  bars 

Of  the  world's  bourne  you  won-. 

Though  hid  beyond  the  Morning's  flaming  hair 

And  the  l>owed  Twilight's  head — 

On    Mich    a    night,    though    1    were   doomed    and   dead, 

I   should  arise,  alas, 

And   seek   for  you,  between  the  dewy  grass 

And    the   pale,  marble   moon 

Wandering,  for  sake  of  that  remembered  June. 

The   inviolate   fields   of  space 
Should  know  my  spirit   hungering  for  your   I 
I'lains   where   no  leafage  yields 
St •ant  shadow;  though  the  radiant  moonlit  fields 
And   meadows  half-asleep 

1   should  go  gliding,  and  on  the  starrv   Deep. 
M\   cerements  drenched  with  dew, 

With    the    immense,   clear    winds    blown    through    and 
through, 


24- 

Star  beyond  burning  star 

And  mile  on  moonlit  mile  of  waves  afar, 

Drift  like  a  cloud.     Perverse, 

Through  all  the  impersonal  and  void  universe 

Still  would  I  seek  that  refuge,  which  is  you. 

Ah,  and  when  I  should  come 

To  one  low  window  where,  in  dreams  and  dumb, 

You  leaned  for  a  short  space, 

Feeling  the  nigfatwind  cool  upon  your  face 

And  the  cold  moonlight  clear — 

So  human  and  so  selfish  and  so  dear, 

So  careless  and  so  strong! — 

After  all  the  long  years  and  hours  long 

Of  bodiless  dead  things, 

Would  not  my  soul  yearn  upward  to  the  springs 

Of  your  sweet  flesh,  and  all 

The  love  within  me  cling  to  you  and  call, 

Laying  for  the  old  sake 

Against  your  lips  poor  ghostly  lips  that  ache — 

And  on  your  forehead  lay 

A  somber  kiss,  from  one  far,  far  away! 


THE  SOUND  OF  THE  SEA 

ALWAYS  here  where  I  sleep  I  hear  the  sound  of  the  sea, 
Rolling  along  the  dunes,  along  the  desolate  places, 
Full  of  a  memory  vague  of  dreams  and  remembered 
faces. 

Always  here  where  I  sleep  I  hear  the  sound  of  the  sea. 


25 

So  have  I  heard  it  sound  for  twenty  summers  or  more, 
Roaring    up    through    the    meadows    between    the 

illuminate  houses, 
Up  through  tin    starry  fields  where  the  black  herd 

sleepily  browses. 
So  have  I  heard  it  sound  for  twenty  summers  or  more. 

Ever  that  sound  it  has,  always,  whenever  I  hear  it. 
Sometimes  it  makes  me  happy,  remembering  days 

that  were  glad 
And  full  of  the  breath  of  June,  sometimes  it  makes 

me   sad — 
l.\tr  that  sound  it  has,  always,  whenever  I   hear  it. 

Under  quivering  stars  and  stars  that  were  clouded  and 

scattered, 

All  through  my  moments  of  joy  and  pain,  of  sleep 
ing  and  dreaming, 

Always  that  quirt  murmur  sorrowfully  was  stream 
ing, 

t'ndrr  quivrring  stars  and  stars  that  were  clouded  and 
scattered. 

Out  of  that  somber  voice  swept  on  the  wings  of  Time, 
Shall  I  not,  bending  down  from  the  starrv  tn  His  of 

hraven, 
Look  on   this  empty  room,  these  meadows  shining 

and  even — 
Out  of  that  somber  voice  swept  on  the  wings  of  Time ! 


26 

"O  it  is  still  unchanged,  all  that  I  loved  and  knew — 
The  sound  of  the  sea,  the  dunes,  the  house  where 

once  I  lay  sleeping, 
The  room  that  bounded  my  love,  my  laughter  and  all 

my  weeping, 
O  it  is  still  unchanged,  all  that  I  loved  and  knew." 

Beyond   what  glittering   stars   and   in   what  ultimate 

regions 
Drifted  along  with  the  night,  shall  I  look  back  and 

ponder 
On  the  forgotten  sound,  the  earth,  and  the  ancient 

wonder — 

Beyond   what  glittering  stars   and   in   what   ultimate 
regions ! 


II 
POEMS  OF  PITY 


In  the  morning  tvith  scorn  I  looked  out  from  my  tower 

of  dreams  on  the  world, 
At   noon  I   went  down   amotn/   men. 
fl'Jien  dark  n-as  the  trrst  and  the  wings  of  the  tWtUgkl 

"were  furled 

I    went   up   to   mi/   tower  again 

Ilumhli/,  with   holier  dreams,  made  grave   hi/   (fie  pain 
of  the  world. 


29 
THE  FANATIC 

You  call  me  mad,  and  if  I  am 

It  was  a  God  that  made  me  so — 
His  fiery  truth  within  my  heart 

Has  burnt  its  life  out  long  ago. 

You,  comrade,  laughing  down  the  street, 
And   you  with  wearier  eyes,  alas — 

I  have  a  message  for  you  each — 
I  catch  your  garments  as  you  pass. 

O  listen  to  me — let  me  speak! 

This  thing  I  know,  and  truly  know: 
Through  love  for  one  another,  love — 

We  must  be  saved,  and  only  so. 


TO  ONE  ASLEEP 

()i  T-IDK  the  tliund.  rs  of  the  city  fade, 

You  too  at  last,  lapped  in  the  great  release, 
Lean   hark  shut   lids;   slowly  all  sounds  decrease-. 

1  In    mystery  of  sleep  makes  me  afraid. — 

Are  these  the  arms  that  alxnit  my  heart  were  laid, 
Are  tlusr  the  lips  that  clung,  the  fingers  these! 
So    deep    a    division    the    disdainful    peace 

Of  temporal  death  between  us  two  has  made. 


30 

Even  as  Death,  into  some  world  above  me 
He  has  called  you  up  beyond  my  utmost  IOM  . 

O  sweet,  where  are  you,  alas  where  are  you  fled ! 
Yet  will  I  not  call  you  back  again  to  love  me, 
Nor  waken  you  from  that  high  peace,  above 
These  little  fears,  these  sorrows  uncomforted. 


LOVE 

LOVE,  plain  and  general  as  our  daily  bread, 
In  all  men  dwells;  there  is  no  heart  so  dead, 
There  is  no  breast  so  pitiless  but  love 
Has  there  some  little  dwelling,  the  white  dove 
Hallows  with  hovering  wings  all  hearts  alive. 
Over  all  souls  that  sicken,  or  that  survive, 
Equally  over  the  sordid  and  the  sublime, 
The  starriest  beauty  and  the  loathliest  crime 
His  healing  shadow  falls  holy  and  grave. 
All  tawdry  and  all  common  human  tilings 
Smile  up  bravely  under  the  yearning  wings, 
So  tremulous  and  so  tentative  to  save. 
There  is  no  villain  and  no  petty  knave, 
There  is  no  face  so  barren,  or  so  vile. 
But  has  been  glorified  some  little  while 
By  the  clear  light  reflect «1  from  Love's  eyes 
And  from  no  face  that  glory  wholly  dies: 
Not  easily  stars  sink  from  tlirir  abode 
Where  they  have  whirled  in  the  eternal  skies, 
Nor  the  soul  dustward  that  lias  been  with  God. 


SI 

I  < )    \0.  42,  WHO  DECLARED  HE  WAS   THE 
CHRIST 

Now  in  the  streets  the  cl-mgor  and  the  riot 
l'ade  dimlv  of}'  like  murmurings  half  aloud. 
Through    the    barred    windows    the    long    shadows 
crowd. 

In  the  asylum  alcove  here  deep  quiet 
Hangs  like  a  heavy  cloud. 

Your  h' -ad.  face  downward,  in  the  bed  lies  sunken, 

Your  thin  clenched  hand  shows  sorrowful  and  white; 
Sad  brother,  in  the  melancholy  light. 
Like  one  who  has  wrestled  with  an  angel,  drunken 
You   sink    into   the   night. 

Lo — in  the  Void  the  irradiate  eyes  grow  holy, 
Kqually  over  the  sordid  and  the  sublime, 
The  starriest  beauty  and  the  loathliest  crime, 

The  healing  shadow  of  night  sinks  downward  slowly. 
The    radiant    planets    climb, 

iim;  an  equal   glory  on  all   creatrd. 
l'..-ieh    from   his  separate   pain   finds  separate   peace; 

you.  too.  now  regain  a  lost    r«  ' 
i  the  liere»-  rapt'ire  your  spirit   has  consr.r    I<<1. 
1   \  en  your  deep  disease, 

Of  baleful  days  and  moon-wild  ri'»to':s  \ision — 
Seraphic  suns  shadows  of  crawling  fears — 
And  that  high  dream  even  madder  than  your  t 

Your   unshakable    faith,    flawless   through   the   derivon 
And  mockery  of  your  pe«  rs. 


32 

Lean  back  your  head,  sleep,  let  their  shallow  jeering 

Die  of  itself,  that  are  too  vain  to  weep! 

What  know  they  of  your  mysteries  dumb  and  deep, 
The  inner,  triumphant  tongues   beyond  all  hearing? 

— Lean  back  your  head  and  sleep. 

Yea,  it  is  hard,  knowing  yourself  the  Master, 
Even  the  Christ  to  the  new  world  reborn, 
Through  the  long  ward  to  trail  in  robes  forlorn. 

Yea,  it  is  hard,  knowing  yourself  the  Master, 
To  endure  the  incredulous  scorn 

Of  every  gibbering  mouth.  The  immortal  Mother, 
Sad  friend,  has  led  you  on  with  no  fostering  hand 
And  set  you  in  that  melancholy  band 

Whose  desolate  eyes  speak  weariness.     O  brother! — 
Could  you  but  understand 

With  what  new  mystery  I  bend  above  you, 

Seeing  you  helpless,  all  your  grief  laid  bare — 
The  uncrowned  Christ  fallen  and  helpless  there — 

What  new,  swift  pity  forces  me  to  love  you,     I 
What  love  wild  as  despair! 

I,  I  at  least,  acknowledge  you,  and  kneeling 
One  moment,  touch  your  garment's  fold  again 
Reverent,  and  with  no  sense  of  malice  thru ; 

Love,  in  your  face  to  me  the  Christ  revealing, 
A  dreamer  among  men. 


S3 
TO  AN  "OLD  MAID" 

LOM:.    like    the    itftfl    and    flowers, 

That  fades  in  season  due — 
Shall,  likr  the  stars  and  flowers, 

Somewhere  come  back  to  you. 

The  morning-stars  that  pale 

When  the  gray  night  grows  old, 

Night,  when  the  day  grows  pale, 
Gives  back  a  thousandfold. 

For  each  last  flower  on  earth 

The  Spring  shall  bring  back  two, 

And  love  you  lost  on  earth 

Somewhere  shall  come  to  you. 


THE  WOMAN    IN  THE  CAFfi 

WITHIN  the  corner  of  a  dim  cafe 

A  painted   woman  sat   with  lips  of  pain. 

The  heat   and    noontide  of  the  sultry  day 

Heat    on    the    stone   outside   and    glanced   again. 
Like   rays  of  fiery  rain. 

H.  r  hand   wa-  at   her  chin,  her  sullen  eyes 
Looked   fixedly   into  the  da//led  street. 

And  the  shrill  hum  within  of  clustering  flies 
Mixed  with  tin-  weary  shuttling  sound  of  feet 
Outside,  in  the  pale  heat. 


34 

The  chair  of  her  companion  for  a  space 

Stood  empty,  in  a  rapt  and  dreaming  mood 
Curved  the  coarse  lines  about  her  mournful  face, 

Of  petty  cares  and  questionings  withstood, 

And  murdered  maidenhood. 

And  in  my  heart  I  heard  as  in  a  dream 

The  warning  of  the  prophets  and  the  priests, 

And  ominous  wrath  of  the  outraged  Supreme, — 
Echoes  from  Nineveh  gone  down  in  feasts, 
And  the  struggle  up  from  the  beasts. 

And  all  the  holy  dreams  whereby  men  live, 
And  in  my  soul  the  cry  of  all  the  creeds, 

And  the  sad  Gods,  that  perish  and  forgive, 
Rang, — and  a  deeper  cry  that  all  exceeds 
Of  the  human  heart  that  bleeds. 

O  sacred  heart — O  dauntless  and  alone ! 

How  have  you  dragged  your  godhead  in  the  dust ! 
O  soul  of  Man  what  is  this  you  have  done ! 

Rise,  smite  with  love  the  tragic  head  of  lust, 

()   somber   and    august  ! 

0  wonderful  and   pitiable  and  sad! 

For  the  first  time  since  first  my  days  began 

1  feel  the  aching  pity,  blind  and  mad, 

To  gather  to  my  heart — to  clasp  and  span 
The  whole  sad  heart  of  man ! 


35 

Hut  while  thes,.  voices  through  my  spirit  sped 
A  strange   transfigurat ion    for  a  space 

Made  lirr  eyes  quiet,  and  a  sorrow  spread 
About  her  lips,  the  pain  of  all  the  race 
x'  -de  holy   in  her  face, — 

With  a  new  look,  half  woman  and  half  girl. 

So  that  I  s  -w  her  as  a  little  child 
Komping  with  tangled  tresses  all  a-curl  ; 

And  now,  as  one  from  a  deep  dream  beguiled, 

Not  knowing  it,  she  smiled. 

Mother  of  many  little  ghosts!      Dear  bride 
Of  every  nann  l.^s   stranger!      ()  sad  lr 

When-  many  a  little  unborn  soul  lias  died. 

U'l:at  joyous  thought,  what  memory,  what  jest 
Thus  stirred  your  deep  unrest! 

Was  it  perhaps  the  story  that  some  friend 

Told  you.  beneath  the  glances  of  four  eyes, 

Some   vision   of  the   lonir  day-journey's   end. 
Pathetic  joy  at  the  near-promised  prize 
For  your  sad   merchandise? 

Poor  little  cheated   spirit      was  it  these, 
Or  a  new  thought  of  some  diviner  goal. 

Some  hope  more  splendid   than  the  body's  ease, 
The  thunder  of  d.-i-p  longings  such  as  roll 
Through  every  human  soul  ? 


36 

Alas,  how  like  we  are,  all  men,  alas — 

Bared  to  the  soul.     O  if  we  all  but  knew 
The  kindred  soul  behind  each  face  we  pass, 

How  Love  would  cry  and  run  to  greet  it,  too, 

Even  as  mine  to  you  ! 

Seeing  you  then  devoid  of  wile  and  lure, 
Pathetic,  silent,  stripped  of  every  art; 

No  more  the  careless,  hollow  paramour, 
But  something  half-maternal  and  apart, 
The  tired  woman's  heart. 

We  are  not  so  divided  as  we  seem, 

'Neath  petty  hates,  the  war  of  "mine  and  thine," 
Broods  a  vast,  common  sorrow, — the  vague  dream 

And  holy  pain  of  life,  a  branded  sign 

On  all  men's  souls  divine, 

The  soul  of  Man  within  the  souls  of  men — . 

For  all  we  share  the  triumph  and  the  doom, 
All  we  rose  from  the  dust,  and  all  again 

Hasten,  through  love  and  longing,  to  the  tomb. 

— Our  lips  meet  in  the  gloom. 

Poor,  helpless  heart,  bedraggled  in  the  dust, 
How  little  have  they  loved  you,  little  known. 

Who  crucified  you  on  the  cross  of  Lust — 
And  made  of  you  a  horror  to  atone 
Some  vileness  of  their  own ! 


87 

Yrt  you  are  human  —  yes,  and  holy  still; 

Within  you.  violated,  still  there  stri\es 
Tin-  hope  of  ,-ill  the  race.  the  vital  will. 

The  motht  T-love  (the  source  of  all  that  lives,) 

That  sorrows  and  forgives. 

Tin-  will  that  moves  the  stars  within  the  Deeps, 
The  force  In-hind  the  city's  roar  and  din 

Within  your  body,  like  an  angel,  sleeps; 

Nor  may  Man  mar  with  wantonness  and  sin 
What  God  has  breathed  therein. 


the   tawdry    and    half-comic   clothes, 
The  gay  cafe  and  garish  lights  appear 
Like  tragic  irony,  the  snowy  rose 

Against  your  breast,  so  virginal  and  clear. 
Is  like  a  mockery.  dear. 

O  Love,  what  word  have  you  to  say  for  this! 

O  patient    I.ove.  barred  'round   with  many  bars! 
O  I.ove  each  day  betrayed  with  the  Judas  kiss  ! 

O  to  cateh  up  and  clasp  all  hurts  and  sears, 

All  grief  under  the  stars! 

To  suffer  for  the  good  of  all  that  liv.  s 
And  in  one's  body  feel  the  hitter  spear, 

The  aching  palms,  the  spirit   that    forums. 
The  thorny  forehead  lifted   hot  and  sear 
In  the  starry  twilight  clear! 


38 

To  be  destroyed,  torn  down  and  sacrificed 

For  the  old  doom  that  all  the  stars  rehear 
To  drain   the  somber  ecstasy   of  a   Christ— 

O  to  crush  out  with  arms  of  love  the  curse 

Of  the  vast  universe! 

The  cold  indifference  of  man  to  man. 

The  lovelessness,  the  war  of  class  with  class, 
The  hatred,  which  has  made  since  Time  began 

Such  creatures  as  yourself  to  come  to  pass, 

Poor  heart,  alas,  alas  ! 

Not  in  new  laws  and  creeds  we  put  our  trust, 
But  in  the  triumph  and  the  truth  of  love 
's  ok  thoughts  or  things  shall  raise  man  from  the  dust, 
But  love  for  one  another,  earthly  love, 
Divine  and  common  love. 

Now  the  long  streets  and  squalid  alleys  seem 
To  fade  away  and  leave  me  all  alone. 

Behind  them  I  discern  the  immortal  Dream, 

The  Love  that  moulded  car-track,  street  and  stone3 
And  in  all  veins  makes  moan. 

The  holy  pain  of  life,  the  vast  desire 

And  common  human  sorrow  seize  my  heart, 

I  rise  with  rapture,  as  on  wings  of  fire, 
Into  the  heaven  of  heavens,  far  apart, 
Lifted,  with  singing  heart, 


39 

Af't.-r  the  tireless  f,  et  of  Love,  that  climbing 
Star  beyond  star  into  the  dix/iest   height 

And  loneliest  marge  still  echo  upward  chiming, 
Star  beyond  star,  into  the  infinite  night, 
Still  higher  toward  the  light. 

Think  not,  dear  sordid  heart,  I  condescend 

From  this  high  dream  with  you  to  sympathize. 

Nay  rather  from  the  heaven  of  life  you  bend 
Downward  to  me,  through  you  into  the  skies 
Of  love,  through  you,  I  rise. 

0  may  this  rapture  soar  like  a  swift  prayer 

To  the  great  Love  that  broods  behind  all  fate, 
For  all  vain  human  sorrow  everywhere, 

To  crush  out  of  the  world  this  curse  of  hate 

That  makes  men  desolate! 

1  MI  drowned  out  amid  the  eternal  Wonder, 
Caught  up  and  rapt  into  a  fiery  place 

My  single  self,  in  the  great  Self  gone  under, 

Falters,  but  through  me  pleads  one  burning  space 
The  voice  of  the  whole  race! 


TO  A  LITTLE  CHILD 

IN  the  cold  eastern  zone 

The  twilit   stars   hang  low, 
Come   little   bird,  my  own — 
Why  wilt   tliou   linger  so; 

I  I-    ivcn   rings  with  the  starry  chime. 

It  is  the  twilight  time. 


40 

Heaven  looks  into  the  sea 
With  all  her  starry  eyes, 
Each  slumbering  dune  and  tree 
Pale  in  the  starlight  lies; 

No  sound  in  the  world  is  heard, 
Come  little  tired  bird ! 

Why  wilt  thou  turn  away 

And  hide  thine  eyes  in  fright, 
Art  thou  so  fond  of  day ! 
Art  thou  afraid  of  night! 

The  flowers  hang  their  heads. 
The  birds  are  in  their  beds. 

Night  sinks  upon  the  Deep, 

Upon  the  vasty  stream., 
In  the  wide  fields  of  sleep 
Are  many  flowers  of  dream; 

No  sound  in  the  world  is  heard, 
Come  little  tired  bird! 


SONG  AT  TWILIGHT 

CLOSE  to  the  highest,  loneliest  face  of  heaven 
The  flaming  candles  of  the  stars  are  pressed, 

Now  are  you  tired  because  the  day  is  done. 

And  twilight  heaves  more  softly  in  your  breast, 

Grown  weary  of  the  sun. 


41 

The  eyelids  of  tin-  world  droop  full  and  drowsy, 
But  the  irradiate  eyes  shine  far  above  her. 

Tin    tumult  and  the  ancient  struggles  cease; 
The  war>  that    Beauty  wages  on  her  lover 

Dwindle  into  a  peace. 

Stretch  out  your  arms  along  the  surging  twilight. 

Lean  back  your  lit  ad  and  sigh  along  the  Deep; 
Here  on  the  misty  marge  of  life  and  death 

There  is  no  turmoil.     Silence  falls  asleep 
Between  your  breath  and  breath. 

The  helplessness  of  sleep  fills  me  with  pity, 

Even  more  than  death,  more  lovable,  more  dear. 

What  eare  have  you  for  all  things  passed  and  done, 
Mournful  or  glad!     Here  in  the  twilight  here 

They  vanish  and  are  gone. 

All  passionate  things  and  all  things  great  and  joyous, 
r.M-n  they,  too,  must   tin-  and   fade  a\\av. 

the  heart  grows  dumb  and  cannot  weep — 
But  leaning  on  the  ebbed  and  fallen  day 

Sleeps,  and  is  glad  of  sleep. 

For  in  the  end  all  things  are  grave  and  holv, 

And  Love,  whose  thought  was  laughter  and  no  other, 

Above  her  lips  with  tears  and  kisses  glad 

Shine  out  the  eyes  of  the  undaunted  mother, 

Prophetical  and  sad. 


42 

TO  THE  MORNING-STAR 

THERE  is  a  tear  upon  your  lashes,  star ! 
Is  it  for  all  humanity's  old  pain, 
Her  sorrows  and  her  longings  vast  and  vnin,- 

O  holy  and  seraphic  morning-star, 

Is  it  for  all  her  longings  vast  and  vain ! 

Open  your  lids  and  close  them  once  again 
In  the  immortal  heavens  where  you  are, 
And  let  it  fall  upon  us  from  afar, 

A  tear  of  pity  from  beyond  all  pain, — 
O  holy  and  seraphic  morning-star ! 


ENVOI 

THE  poet  is  one  whose  pity  is  ever  new, 

And  whose  hands  are  wistful  to  mould  vague  beauty 

and  make 
Into  glad  beauty  all  things  unbeautiful  too, — 

The  world-heart  yearns,  the  woods  and  the  waters 
ache. 

All  scorned  and  pitiable  things,  all  futile  things 
Lift  up  their  heads  and  look.     Look  up,  be  not  sad ! 

His  hand  is  out,  and  the  scorned  and  the  futile  sings 
With  a  grave,  still  voice  and  a  voice  that  is  almost 
glad. 


Ill 
MISCKU.AXEOUS 


The  old  familiar  Beauty 

Caressed  by  the  world's  dead  hands, 
Beauty,  so  old  and  wean/, 
Beloved  of  a  thousand  lovers, 

ll'orn  U-///I   a  thousand  kisses, 
Surprising      l>ene/icent — holy — 
Comes  to  us  all  in  the  end. 


POETRY 

SI.KKIMNG,  again  I  felt  it — 

The  terrible  Loveliness 
Draw  near,  the  rhythmical  body 

Exuberant  with  excess. 

The  august  and  insolent  beauty 
With  splendor  of  regal  strides 

Moved,  the  magnificent  bosom 
Where  heave  the  immortal  tides! 

Upon  my  face  I  felt  it 
Again,  the  gorgeous  hair, 

The  beautiful,  stately  stature 
Bown  down  across  me  there. 


THE  LOST  LAND 

TUMULT  is  in  the  west,  and  wild  voiees  calling, 

The  old,  barbaric  voices  calling  that  will  not  rest; 
Therefore  my  heart  is  glad,  I  am  strong,  I  shout 

with  the  west 

And  follow  with  tears  and  laughter  where  the  leaves 
are  falling. 


46 

The  dun  cattle  roam  where  the  wind  bows  down  the 

grass, 
The  swallows  leap  on  the  wind,  and  shift  and  follow 

and  stray 
Over  the  long  dimes  to  the  land  of  the  heart  far 

away 

Calling:    and  in  my  veins  a  voice  cries  out  where  thrv 
pass. 

I  remember  the  house — the  sorrow  long  ago 

In  the  first  widening  dawn  of  the  world,  the  quiet 

face 
Lost  ere  the  first  sea  sang,  or  the  wind, — the  lonely 

place 

Beyond  the  white-capped  sea,  where  the  winds   and 
waters    go. 

Therefore   I,  too,  am  glad, — I   shout  aloud  with  the 

earth, 
I  am  made  one  with  her  winds  and  waves,  and  in  my 

breast 

The  fierce  elemental  voices  crying  down  the  west — 
The  lust  for  some  far  land  and  meadows  lost  at  birth! 

I  will  laugh  on  the  hills,  shout  where  the  days  depart ! 
Death  cannot  quench  my  course,  or  stay  me  with 

his  hand; 

I  shall  spring  from  the  dust  again  toward  the  long- 
lost  land, 

As  the  lithe  swallow  springs  when  autumn  cries  in  the 
heart. 


17 
•:d   the    long   gray   clouds    the   winds   walk    in   the 

it. 
The  dun  cattle  pause  with  strained-out  throats  and 

stray, 
Where   the   swallows    leap  on  the  wind,  and   shift, 

and  follow  away 
Calling,  calling.      O,  the  voices   will   leave  no  rest! 

I  will  laugh  on  the  hills.  gird  myself  up  for  my  race. 
Yea,  thou  art    very    fair,   thou   art  strong, — but  O 

earth,  O  my  mother. 
The  cry  deep  in  the  heart  not  all  the  years  can 

smoth.r. 
The  old.  strange  pang,  the  voices, — the  lost  pi  a, 


JUSTIFICATION 

AHOTT   me   all    the    flickering   lovelir 
Of  life,  with  love  and  death  irradiate, 
Tortures  my  heart  continually  to  cre-itr 
proof    thereof   o!:t    of   her   own   CXCC9B'. 

I.r-t  there  be  left  out  of  my  deep  distress 
No  dream  to  justify  my  desolate 
And    beauty-haunted    hours,  my   love   and    Irite. 

And  all  my  spirit  trembles  to  express. 

Sorrow  alone  is  bearable  through  this, 
That    I  may  sing  its  beauty  as  it   is. 

And  joy  that   is  not  uttered   is  not  joy; 
The  mournful  doom  of  life  is  not  to  be  borne, 
!   not  shout  my  ringing  defiance  of  scorn 

Once,  ere  the  1'  it.  s  <1,  tiou.r  me  and  destroy! 


48 

THE  POET  AND  THE  YOUNG  GIRL 

POET: 

Though  you  know  many  things,  you  cannot  know 

The  longing  on  my  lips  that  makes  them  wail 
For  earth's  huge  beauty  when  the  storm-winds  blow, 
When  dawn  makes  the  vast  waters  pure  and  pale: 
All  Loveliness  I  serve  with  love  and  duty, 
Your  beauty  scorns  the  tenderness  of  Beauty. 
GIRL: 
Why  will  you  waste  the  wonder  of  your  Youth 

In  mirrored  visions  of  a  vain  delight ! 
I  am  the  vision  carven  into  truth, 

I  am  the  poem  that  you  could  not  write: 

I  am  the  Power  that  you  made  the  song  for, 
Within  me  lies  the  secret  that  you  long  for. 
POET: 
Though  all  the  modes  and  meanings  of  creation 

Within  your  arms  grew  voluble  and  clear, 
Still  lurks  in  them  a  deeper  revelation, 

Still  cries  a  voice,  "Beyond — it  is  not  here!" 
To  life  that  perishes  you  are  the  portal. 
I  am  the  pathway  to  the  life  immortal! 


FROM  ANY  ORLANDO  TO  ANY  ROSALIND 

AH,  Rosalind  the  boy-like  clothes 

How  futile  are  they  and  how  fair — 

The  locks  are  short,  but  what  red  rose 
Lurks  beneath  the  hidden  hair? 
O  maid-like,  maid-like  fair! 


49 

What  unknown  tiling  is  there  to  fear 

In  tliis  hoy-faee  and  boy-like  tiyt§\ 
Come  close  to  me,  look  up,  draw  near — 

And  is  it   pity  in  them  lies? 

O  woman's,  woman's  eyes ! 


THE  NEW  LOVE 

HKFORE  the  morning  I  arose  and  went 
Over  the  snowy  meadows  clear  and  cold, 

And  with  the  dawn  a  deep  and  new  content 
Awoke  in  me.     Farewell,  dear  love  of  old. 


that  I  love  you,  what  is  there  to  say! 
Who   would    have    harmed    you,   what   shall    now   be 

d  ! 

The  morning  wind  has  purged  it  all  away. 
Before  this  love  all  the  old  lusts  lie  dead. 

Tin-  holier  love  more  deep  than  all  desire 
Into  my  spirit  from  the  morning  came, 

Out  of  the  sacred  and  the  whitening  Fire 
It  rose  within  me  like  a  silent  flame; 

And  the  winds  blew  it  to  me  from  the  west, 

Over  the  sad  fields  of  unbroken  snow, 
Patient  and  pun-  as  your  own  naked  breast 

And  hopeless  as  our  love  of  long  ago. 


50 

"FOR  EVERY  SOUL  IS  ALONE" 

Lonely  the  soul  is,  though  from  east  to  west 
She  fly  the  phantom  following  without  rest — 
Loneliness  lurks  amid  the  thickest  crowd, 
A  loneliness  more  deep  than  solitude, 
Deep  loneliness  at  the  beloved  breast. 


TO  THE  FORGOTTEN 

DEAR  tragic  women  of  our  foolish  youth, 

Where  are  you  now,  alas,  where  are  you  gone! 

For  all  the  perjured  promises,  the  untruth, 
How  shall  we  ever  answer  or  atone? 

All  woman,  and  half  angel,  and  half  fiend, 

Incredulous  through  experience,  having  proved — 

O  you,  on  whom  our  fledgling  longing  leaned 
In  the  first  mystery  of  being  loved ! 

O  sisters,  comforters — patient  and  so  wise, 

Dear  listeners  to  young  words  of  love  and  pain ! 

That  kissed  like  a  mother  the  sorrows  from  our  eyes, 
Smiling  at  the  brave  vows,  so  old  and  vain. 


PARIS  TO  HELEN  AFTER  THE  ABDUCTION 

WHY  will  you  turn  about  and  look  so  sadly  ! 
Why  arc  your  lips  so  discontent  and  curled! 

O  hold  me,  kiss  me,  till  this  fear  be  gone    .... 


51 

Tin-  Mind  wind  rustles  through  the  mast-head  niadlv. 
Thr  prow  is  anxious  and  tin-  sail  unfurled 

l-'or   tin-    pale    fit-Ids    beyond    the   starlit    /one, 
And  the  un furrowed  sea  beckons  us  on. 

O   I    hive  dreamed  of  this  in  ages  gone! 
O  I  have  sought  these  lips  across  the  world! 
Why  will  you  give  them  to  me  now  so  sadly— 
The  blind  wind  wafts  us  on  the  waters  gladlv 

O  found  at  last !     O  prisoned !     O  my  own  ! 


THR  VAMPIRE 

GRAY   nigh^,  ghost-like,  waned    at    dawn, 
The  pale,  green  sky  curved  like  a  lawn 

Witli  stars  a  flower; 
So  she  lifted   up  her  he/id 
And  waited,  bonding  by  the  bed 

The  stroke  of  the  hour. 

Her  rigid  throat  and  temples  white 
Showed  sickly  in  the  pallid  light. 

Sickly   and   stark  ; 

And  all  her  mouth,  for  a  short  while 
Partec^  and  pausing  in  a  smile. 

Was  \\-i  t  .-iixl  d-irk. 


52 

Dawn — !     In  a  last,  mad  throe  of  love 
Her  red  lips  diaLogd  hin^bending  above.- 

The  moment  aftep 

With  sudden  pityxshe  turned,  and  then 
The  gusty  wind  blew  back  again 

A  dwindling  laughter. 


MUSIC 

WHEN  from  beyond  the  far  horizons  of  the  world 
The  first  faint  dawning  voices  of  the  soul  proceed, 

I  endure  the  pain  of  things  primal  and  unknown 
And  gird  up  my  spirit  and  follow  where  they  lead. 

I  endure  the  pain  of  things  importunate  and  vague, 
Beckoning  and  dim,  that  make  the  poor  heart  bleed. 

O  voices  beyond  birth !     O  lost  when  I  was  born ! 
I  gird  up  my  spirit  and  follow  where  you  lead. 


LARMERETTA 

NOT  all  the  sound  now  of  the  full  sea's  flowing 
Can  move  you  to  any  laughter  or  any  tears, 

Nor    voice    in    the    waving    wood    when    the    wind    is 

blowing 
Fill  you  again  with  the  old,  vague  fears, — 

Nor  life  going,  going. 


Because  you   had  dour  with   them  all   and   were  very 
tired, — 

\nd    turned    with    large    sighs    toward    the    West, 
And  all   the  hope  wherewith  your  heart   was   fired 

I- ••II.  and  all  that  you  knew  and  loved  the  best, 
And  all  that  you  desired,  desired. 

For  at  the  sound  of  your  weeping,  at  the  sound  of  your 
crying, 

The  veiled  God  N)Wed  out  of  the  silent  land. 

And  drew  you  close  to  his  breast,  where  your  white 

breast    lying 

Faint   on   the   inexorable  breast  that  cannot   under 
stand, 

I. cans  to  him  sighing,  sighing. 


MORMM,    SI  I.KP 

oui   lo\e  is  de-id!"  a   voice  cried  out  to  me 
When  morning's  dusk   was  deep. 

'"''  my  heart   rang  wearilv: 

Hut   I  was  fain  of  sleep. 

I  could  not  cue.       Pain  vanished  with  my  dreams 

Into  the  dark  withdrawn: 
()   'ill    "•'•  UWC,  how   far  away   it   ft  ems 

In  the  pale  sleep  of  dawn! 


54 

DISCONTENT 

As  often  n,r,,H<ih  tin   beloved  eyes  there  glow 
The  eyes  of  om  In  lurid  /<>».'/  ago— 

.j.irit  and  the  /»>"  A'i.™  dilTtrtnt  fares: 
So  through   tin'    .rorld  of  occnn.  <«rth   and  air 
I     ,,',,nd<'r    hntnfuirk.     <i'ir«i/*.     <  r,  ri/irhere 
Reminded  of  dim  world*  and  dixtnnt  pfau 

It  is  not  sorrow  that  has  made  me  sad, 

Or  fear  wherewith  the  spirit's  wings  grow  weak, 

Here  where  your  lashes  tremble  on  my  cheek, 
And  the  high  stars  look  infinite  and  glad, 

And  the  heart  yearns  to  speak. 

It  is  not  these,  but  having  sought  an  hour, 
A  little  hour  of  silence  and  of  rest, 
With  a  grave  face  to  hide  the  aching  west, 

That  unassuaged  a  deep  desire  should  flower 
Even  now  within  my  breast, 

And  I  should  dream  as  one.  that  having  drifted 
Out  of  some  old-world  star  into  this  new, 
Might  dream  of  a  lost  face  more  fair  to  view- 

And  feel  in  the  grave  ryrs  toward  his  uplifted 
Another's   shining  through. 

MEMORY 

MKMORY  makes  no  thoughtful  life  rejoice, 

She  is  a  siren  and  a  dangerous  voice 

I  urin"  us  back  along  the  dear,  dead  way, 

Whni   we  should  forward   march  and  breast  the  day. 


ii    a    somber   and    a    mournful   cry 
Out  of*  the  waning  and  the  sunset  sky. 
The  universe  between  her  breath  and  breath 
Remembers  some  lost  thing,  and  brings  forth  death; 
Through  the  dark  door  remembering  she  goes, 
And  the  dust  swallows  up  the  withered  rose. 


THE  GREAT  LOVER 

Sin:  looked  in  death  as  in  the  bridal-swoon: 

What  if  she  were  but  wearied  out  with  bliss, 
And  death  but  the  love-sleep  on  the  face  of  Life, 

The  bride-sleep   after   sonic   immortal  kiss! 


AN  OLD  SONG 

MY  sMer.  my  spo  tl  a  scent  spring. 

A  fountain  of  light  under  tin-  brows  of  the  morn, 

A  garden   of  quiet   rest; 
I" ruler  her  side  the  melancholy  sorrowing 
Of  ancient  sadness  is,  and  under  her  breast 
The  joy  of  the  unborn. 

My   flowf  r.  my   Ime.   is  as  a   shining  star, 
As  a  young  rose  hid  in  tin    windv  grass, 
A  shout  in  the  land  of  death — , 
:nournful  beauty  of  all  sad  things  that  are, 
A  passionate  and  unvailing  breath. 
A  soft  "Ala 


56 

O  my  sister,  my  dove,  is  as  a  bundle  of  myrrh, 
A  house  of  delights,  a  garden  of  pleasant  length, 

A  shady  and  pleasant  tree; 

Her  breast  is  the  mansion  of  certain  dreams  that  were, 
And  her  sad  breast  a  promise  of  things  to  be, 
A  sorrowful  strength ! 

As  a  cool  wood  is  my  own,  my  sister,  my  dove, 
A  giver  of  life,  a  gate  to  the  land  of  breath, 

A   stooping  and   shady   cloud; 
As  a  sad  secret  bared  for  the  eyes  of  love, 
A  futile  defiance,  sorrowful  and  proud, 
Of  ancient  Death. 


TO  A  BRIDE 

WHEN  in  the  moment  of  your  greatest  joy 

Your  heart  is  drunken,  and  immense  and  free 
Reaches  before  you  the  wide  heaven  of  joy, 
Remember  me. 

When  your  heart  fails  you  and  you  cannot  bear 

The  thought  of  all  the  little  days  to  be, 
When  in  the  evening  you  are  very  tired, 
Remember  me. 

O  in  the  bridal  chamber  in  his  arms, 

\\  In  n  voiir  breast  heaves  with  music  like  the  sea, 
When  all  the  world  is  banished  and  forgot, 
Remember  me ! 


57 
When  on  your  death-bed  you  shall  lie,  and  all 

Your  memory  ebbs  to  the  great  Memory — 
When  on  some  other  breast  you  lean  at  last, 
Ah  then,  remember  me. 


ON  THE  TOMB  OF  A  LOVER 

HUSH — the  ancient  sea  has  a  sound  of  sighing, 
Kissing  sadly  shadowy  dunes  and  headlands, 
Far  around  the  solitudes  moaning,  moaning, 
Here  where  his  tomb  is. 

NDw  the  heart  is  still  and  the  eyes  are  heavy, 
Mute  the  mouth  and  empty  the  breast  of  dreaming. 
All  the  laughter  out  of  the  lips  is  vanished, 
Aye — and  the  longing! 

Never,  never  now  will  he  hear  the  rain  fall 
Never  now  the  beautiful  arms  embrace  him. 
\Vh«-n  again   he  wearies  of  peace  and  slumber, 
Here  by  the  ocean. 


TO  THE  MODERN  MAN 

FROM  mysteries  of  the  Past 
The  Future  is  prophesied. 

The  Actual  comes  and  goes 
Like  shadows  on  a  tide. 


58 

Realities  come  and  go 

Like  shadows  on  a  pool — , 
The  leaves  are   for  the  wise  man, 
The  shadows  for  the  fool. 

Out  of  the  moment  Now 

Rises  the  god  To-Be, 
The  light  upon  his  brow 

Is  from  eternity. 

Leave  dreaming  to  the  fool 
And  take  things  as  they  are; 

All  things  are  in  yourself, 
Who  stand  upon  a  star 

And  look  upon  the  stars, 

And  yearn  with  deepening  breath- 
All  things  are  in  yourself — 
Love  and  Life  and  Death. 


REBIRTH 

THE  soul  at  last 

Throned  on  the  stars, 
Forgets  the  past 

And  the  old  wars. 

Deep  in  the  night 

Beyond  regret, 
Throned  on  the  height 

It  can  forget. 


59 
Till  a  new  breast 

Cry  out  with  lo\ 
Then  vague  unrest 

Stirs  it  above. 

Till  face  to  face 

Two  lovers  cling; 
From  the  high  place 

With  sorrowing, 

With  fire  and  thunder 

Dethroned  and  rent, 
For  the  old  wonder 

All  discontent, 

Height  over  height 

It  burns  and  sighs 
For  the  old  light 

In  the  old  eyes — 

And  cannot  rest, 

High  in  tlu-  Vast, 
Till  a  new  breast 

Beat  loud  and  fast, 

Till  a  new  womb 

Conceive  on  earth ; 
Tin -n.  through  the  gloom 

Of  a  new  birth. 

I  nun  its  high  source 
It  runs  again 

Tin-  fiery  (MM 

And  path  of  pain. 


60 

SORROW  AND  DAWN 

ONE  molten  star 

Hangs  in  the  web  of  dawn, 
Cloud  beyond  cloud  withdrawn 
Afar. 

The  earth,  the  trees 

Windless,  wait  meek  and  dumb 
The  new-born  day  to  come. 
O  peace! 

O  peace,  O  pain ! 

Must  each  new  patient  morrow 
Wake  the  irrevocable  sorrow 
Again ! 


THE  INSPIRATIONS 

Not  dawn  folds  with  the  stars  up  in  the  skies 
The  sleeplrit*  lids  of  the  eternal  eyes. 

THE  sleepless  Beauties,  like  the  sun  and  rain, 

Vanish,  and  come  again ; 

Yet  but  a  little  bear, 

And  though  you  cannot  find  them  anywhere, — 

Suddenly  breaks  the  blue, 

The  eternal  rhythm  glides — 

Around,  above,  beneath  you,  on  all  sides, 

Loves  shines  through ! 


Gl 
MI.MORIES  OF  FIRST  LOVE 

\Viii:.\  through  long  sorrows  vainly  passed 

Of  many  faces,  first  and  last, 
Of  women  loveless  proved, 
We  turn  back  to  the  first  we  loved  ; 

The  dear,  first  face,  first  kissed,  first  held 

T\\i\t   wondering  hands  all  love-compelled, 

To  the  old  homesickness  unquelled 
Slowly  tlu-  heart  is  moved. 


A  LAST  CRY 

Tin:   world   is  full  of  horror,  death,  and  crime, 
And  heart!  in  prison,  or  of  walls,  or  pain; 

But  once  in  all  the  years  there  was  a  time 

When  we.  with  thrillinir  souls  that  seemed  to  strain 
Beyond  all  death,  had  caught  up — not  in  vain — 

The   whole  of  life  and   utten  d  it  sublime. 

Your   laughter,  the   imperious   demand 

Of  fearless  i  yes.  your  beauty's  tidal  breath 

Was  like  a  shout  heard  in  a  lonely  land, 
A  challenge,  a  defiance  of  old  death. 
That   loving  we  had  trampled  underneath 

With  laughter;  but   you  could  not  understand. 

I  thirst   for  you  as  on,-  that   for  fresh  springs 

Thirsts   in   the  deserts  of  Eternity, 
M  v  soul  to  yours  across  the  desert  rinjjs 


62 

'Mid  myriad  forms  to  you  alone  I  flee — . 

O  without  you  who  hold  the  mystery 
How  shall  I  front  the  mystery  of  things? 

Both  we  move  toward  the  everlasting  tombs 
And  unto  us  the  keys  of  life  are  given — 

O  lu  art  on  heart  amid  the  encircling  glooms 
To  challenge  the  eternities,  yea  even 
One  soul  complete  strip  off  the  veils  of  heaven, 

And  lift  Life's  voice  amid  the  eternal  Dooms! 

But  this  shall  never  be,  we  shall  depart 

To  the  great  general  Source  from  which  we  came, 

In  separate  lands  to  slumber  far  apart: 
It  will  all  be  as  nothing,  as  a  name 
That  writhes  away  within  the  withering  flame, 

Or  an  old  memory  in  a  mouldering  heart. 

'Mid  sun,  and  moon,  and  meteor  that  careens 
In  the  immense,  immortal  firmament, 

PP  '.'limit   of  aeons,  womb   of   mio-Jit-have-beens, 
This  cry  that  from  my  soul  to  yours  is  sent 
Once,  ere  all  life  and  death  and  love  are  blent 

And  lost  forever — ponder  what  it  means ! 

And  now,  as  when  through  ranks  on  either  side 

The  swaying  weight  is  borne  with  ponderous  tread, 

Before  man's  general  mystery  sanctified 
All  eyes  are  bowed,  and  every  sullen  head 
Stands  bared,  so  do  you  now  before  Love  dead 

Bo\r  down  your  eyes  a  little,  without  pride. 


63 

In  sorrow  laid  at  rest  I  brood  above  you. 

Tliis  lovr  of  mine  you  cannot  ever  know. 

I  and  lips  and  wonder  of  you 

I   In-nd.  as  in  the  days  of  long  ajr«>. 

I  |dM  you.  and  renounce  you.  and  forego, 
Hushing  myself  forevermore.  I  love  you. 


SONGS  OF  THK 


THE  world  of  love  is  still  the  same 
In  cast-land,  or  in  west: 

and  stars  and  meeting  eyes 
And  a   heating 


Dreams  at  dawn  and  bitter  fear 
\Yhen  all  the  world  lies  dumb. 

Ecstasy,  and  ineinorit  -s 

Through   th-  to  come!- 

Though  I  roam  the  wh«.le  world  over; 

Be  it  bad.  or  mad. 
Love  is  so  where'er  I  go, 

(  ,]  id.  ami   very  sad. 

t-ilfs    <>f    MV-n/    tr'inmn    /""A    alike 
When  the  if  in  y» 

1  \KRY  face  of  every  woi 

That  I   •  ver  kissed 

th«-  ey«  «»f  niy  f'r^t   lov«  . 
\Vhen  we  came  to  tryst. 


04 

Though  her  eyes  were  not  the  same, 

In  the  starry  glow 
They  were  like  the  eyes  of  her 

I  loved  so  long  ago. 

Though  she  have  another  name, 
From  east-land,  or  from  west, 

When  a  woman's  in  your  arms 
She  is  like  the  rest. 

And  the  eyelids,  and  the  mouth, 

And  the  look  she  had 
Of  the  vanished,  banished  love, 

Made  me  glad  and  sad. 


LOVE'S  RESURRECTION 

I  MURDERED  Love  and  crucified  it, 
Nailed   and    left  it  to  its   doom. 
I  tore  it  down  and  buried  it 
Deep  in  the  tomb. 

I  rolled  the  stone  across  the  door, 
My  fingers  slipped,  the  heavy  stone 
Crushed  my  hand,  but  never  my  lips 
Escaped  a  moan. 

I  rolled  the  stone  across  the  door. 
Singing,  singing,  I  went  away, 
Free  of  heart,  free  of  heart, 
At  dusk  of  day. 


65 

On  the  third  morrow  it  arose 
And  walked  abroad  beneath  the  stars, 
Thr  brows  \vrrr  lovely  as  the  Christ's 
And  crowned  with  sears. 

Stooping  at  dusk  from  behind  to  kiss  me, 
\\Yrpinir  I   heard  a  voice  that  said, 
"Lo  it  is  I,  lo  it  is  I ! 
Be  not  afraid." 

I  counted  all  its  wounds  thrice  over, 
And  as  I  wept  beholding  so, 
It  comforted  me,  and  whispered  me, 
"I  know,  I  know." 

I  hung  to  it  and  clung  to  it 
And  sobbed  for  sorrow  fierce  and  wild. 
It  murmured.  "Was  it  yourself  you  slew, 
My  child,  my  child!" 


THE  VOICE  OF  THE  SPRING 

IN  May -time  when  the  first  few  lilacs  flower, 
At  ni^lit.  in  the-  lamp-lit  strrrt,  can  I  forget 

A  girl's  voice  heard  from  a  in  ar  leafy  bower, 
"No,  swrrthcart,  not  my  lips,  not  yet,  not  yet !" 

Twas  twilight  and  the  very  houses  even 

Seemed  touelied  with  an  influence  amorous  and  d«  ir; 
The  earth,  the  bride  of  the  dim,  stnrry  hr.-iven, 
Half-tremulously  tluttrrcd  with  a  vague  fear. 


66 

O  Life,  even  so  with  many  a  vain  evasion, 

Pleadings  and  tears,  unquestioningly  on 
From  cheeks,  eyes,  lips,  you   press   with   sweet  per 
suasion 

Even  to  the  heart,  till  the  dear  deed  be  done ! 

Not  all  the  choirs  of  the  Creation  pleading 

Can  stay  your  tireless  progress — bloom  and  bud — 

The  virginal  Spring  with  half-shy  lips  conceding 
Surrenders  all,  for  the  sweet  general  good. 

The  lilacs  in  the  twilight  were  in  flower 

And  the  air  wild  with  Spring — ,  can  I  forget 

A  girl's  voice  heard  from  a  near  leafy  bower, 
"No,  sweetheart,  not  my  lips,  not  yet,  not  yet!" 


"THE  WAGES  OF  SIN  IS  DEATH" 

I  HAVE  sown  tares  and  been  the  harvester 
Of  plenteous  grain  with  sickle  and  with  knife; 

Lo,  I  have  sinned  and  for  my  wages  were 
Not  bitter  death,  but  everlasting  life. 

At  nij;ht,  rebellious  and  in  bitterness, 

With  a  small  heart  I  plotted  evil  things. 

His  dawn   for  a   reproach  of  tenderness 

Lightened  me  with  the  wonder  of  her  wings. 

I  sought  the  evil  and  I  found  the  good. 

I  prayed  for  lust  and  I  was  given  love, 
And  when  I  cursed  Him  in  a  sullen  mood 

He  sent  His  stars  upon  me  from  above. 


67 
TO  THE  AVERAGK   MAX 

How  can  you  rust  your  flesh  with  ulcerous  ills 
And   wreak   upon   yourself  a  st  usual   wrong, 

Whrn   lowing  cattle  on   a  thousand  hills 

Take  the  dumb  death  to  make  your  lx>dy  strong! 

'.Mid   lurid   city  and   in   loathesome  den 
Ft» Trial  spirits  work  for  you  and  wake. 

And  all  the  hearts  of  all  the  world  of  men 
Are  laboring  on  together  for  your  sake. 

The  cloth  and  very  garment  that  you  w 
Against  your  heart,  in  distant  lands  afar 

Was   wrought   by   hearts   more   aged    in   despair — , 
How  shall  you  answer  them  for  what  you  are? 

Will  you  return  them  nothing  for  all  tlii>  ' 

For  factories,  wheels,  and  grim  machineries  whirled, 

-  that  plumb  for  you  the  huge  Abyss. 
And  the  vast  Science  of  the  modern  world. 

Heroes  and   warriors  that   for  you  have   bird. 
Farmers  tilling  the  stubble  field  and  stone. 

: ustere  host  of  the  heroic  dead 
Who  cleared  the  way  and  wrought  for  you  alone. 

Your  mother  bore  and  bred  you  at  her  breast 
With  holy  longing  and   with   patient   pain — 

And  the  dawn  wakes  you.  and  tli«    |fc*fl  ur;\-'  P -t  : 
Shall   all   these   influences  be  in  vain  ! 


68 

The  prophets  and  the  poets  and  the  sages 

For  you  have  triumphed  over  hate  and  lust, 
And  groaned  for  you  the  irrevocable  ages — , 

How  dare  you  turn  and  grovel  in  the  dust! 


EPITAPH 

Two  lovers  had  I,  Life  and  Death, 
That  followed  me  forever — 

Alas  but  Life  grew  out  of  breath. 
Death's  footstep  falters  never. 

Fain  had  I  turned  to  kiss  with  Life, 
But  Death  he  followed  faster — 

Life  is  my  lover  and  my  dear, 
But  Death,  he  is  my  master. 


CREDO 

BEFORE  I  pass  through  the  eternal  Portal 
One  thing  I  feel  is  true,  because  I  must — , 

That  Beauty  for  some  reason  is  immortal, 
Although  her  face  go  sorrowing  in  the  dust. 

Even  death  itself  is  but  a  crown  of  flowers 
About  her  brows,  immortalizing  death. 

Before  I  pass  into  the  silent  hours 

This  thing  I  cry,  and  with  my  latest  breath. 


69 
NOW 

I  Ii  I;K  is  thr  place.  tin-  time 

N    Now.  in  which  to  act, 
Tin-  imagined  and  sublime 

Prove  it  a  glowing  fact! 

There  is  no  bounding  wall 

Between  you  and  the  stars, 
Nor  anything  at  all 

That  hinds  you  and  debars. 

Kternitirs  behind, 

Ktrrnities  before, 
Thr  endless  cycles  wind 

Converging  at  your  door. 

Thr  irrevocable  ages 

Have  set  you  in  this  place, 
And  all  thr  leefl  and  sages 

Have  starward  turned  your  far.-. 


Thr   1:1  IK  rations   banished 
l'<>r  you  ha\r  sought  thr 

And  all  thr  propln  Is 

Hut  prophesied  your  soul. 


Hisr  thru,  thr  chance  is  splendid, 
Will    rightly,  and    !><•  strong! 

Tin    art    is  (jiiirkly  rndrd. 
Hut   thr  !i\.d    fatr  is  long. 


70 

The  choirs  of  all  Creation 

Echo  forever  still, 
"Your  doom,  or  your  salvation 

Depends  on  your  own  will." 


CRADLE-SONG 

SLEEP — now  the  day  is  done 
The  dreams  within  your  breast 

Grow  wearier  one  by  one, 
And  turn  them  to  their  rest. 

Sleep,  like  sweet  honey,  lies 
Between  your  parted  lips 

And  down  your  folded  eyes 
Sleep  draws  his  finger-tips. 

What  little  tremors  creep 
About  your  eyelids  sealed? 

Sweet  dreams  spring  in  your  sleep 
Like  flowers  in  a  field ! 

Sweet  dreams  hang  on  your  sleep 
Like  perfumes  on  a  flower! 

The  little  screech-owls  weep. 
It  is  the  lonely  hour. 

Star  upon  star  grows  bright 
In  the  pale  western  zone, 

Trembling  for  sheer  delight — 
Little  love-bird — O  my  own  ! 


71 
I  love  you,  I  cannot  say, 

I   cannot  tell  you  how — 
I  love  you  all  the  day. 
And  now  I  lovr  you,  now! 

The  stirs  with  all  their  eyes 

Watch  you  through  all  the  hours. 

Sleep  on  your  eyelids  lies 
Like  starlight  on  the  flow- 


YOUTH 

O\<  r  into  my  chamber  broke  a  silent  figure, 
I  nil  of  many  wounds,  each  a  kiss  of  mine; 

Pat  it-lit  were  the  lips,  it  bared  to  me  the  spear-wound, 
Counted  all  its  scars  over,  one  by  one. 

Christ-like  was  the  fare,  the  eyes  were  like  a  demon's, 
Drrp  within  them  burnrd  all  my  ancient  lust: — 

Thm  I  km-w  'twas  lie.  my  Youth  that  I  had  murdered; 
I  it  was  who  put  the  spear  into  his  side. 


WINTER  NIGHT 

AROUND  me  where  I  stood  all  windless  lay 
Vast  polar  regions  keen  with  snow  and  pale, 
Ami  crystal,  arctic  regions,  whrrr.  like  nuns. 
The  cruel   stars   with   t;littrrini;  < v<  s  and  cold 
Preached  tin    st.-rn  doctrine  of  eternal  law, 
Inexorable,  inevitable  to  lie. 


72 

Strange  horror  felt  I  then  amid  the  vast 

And  shrill  machinery  of  the  universe, 

Bleak,  barren  voids  where  Space  and  Time  are  dead, 

And  the  most  calm  necessity  of  things. 

With  all  the  passionate  life  in  me  I  strove 
To  storm  the  emptiness,  but  to  what  end ! 
The  brain  of  heaven  is  aweless  and  her  face 
The  sad,  set  face  of  the  immortal  Fact. 


PITILESS  BEAUTY 

BEAUTY  will  not  let  me  rest 

Either  night  nor  day, 
Like  a  voice  within  my  breast 

Calling  me  away. 

When  the  morning,  sad  and  vast, 

Rises  through  the  stars, 
I  am  summoned  forth  again 

To  the  endless  wars ; 

Evening,  with  hrr  myriad  eyes, 

Will  not  let  me  sleep, 
Sick  for  Beauty  on  my  bed 

The  long  hours  creep. 

0  Beauty,  cruel  and  stupendous ! 
Hounded,  out  of  breath, 

1  fly  you  through  the  gloom  tremendous 
Down  the  slopes  of  Death. 


7S 
ESTHER 

You,  that  I  gave  of  my  youth. 

With  you  my  youth  is  fled, 
The  passionate  purpose,  the  truth 

Of  the  first,  fair  love  that  is  dead— 
Tin   fierce,  sweet  fire  of  youth. 

Win-re  shall  I  find  them  at  last! 

Roam  I  the  city  in  vain, 
Seeking  the  days  that  are  passed, 

The  old,  lost  rapture  again, 
The  light  of  a  day  overcast. 

You  were  all  that  to  greet 

Love  found  lovely  and  fair, 
Swift  and  heedless  and  sweet, 

Vagrant, — wild  as  the  air, 
Fleet  as  a  wave  that  is  fleet! 

Tyrannous,  pitiless,  gay, 

Not  to  be  caught  in  Love's  net: 
Felt  I  my  life  as  it  lay, 

Sweet,  at  our  lips  where  they  met 
Stealthily  stolen  away, 

Softly  persuaded.     O  red, 

Persuasive,  sharp  as  the  Spring's 
Lips !     That  lured  to  be  shed, 

-ted  (as  songs  that  one  sings), 
Love  on  your  own  lovt-lihead! 


.  e 


74 

Ever  my  life  and  again 

At  the  soft  pang  of  their  touch 
Thrilled,  and  ever  again, 

Sweet,  of  yourself  overmuch 
Filled,  gave  over  again. 

Wearied  for  rapture  and  worn, 
Suited  and  tamed  to  your  heart, 

Faint  between  twilight  and  morn, 
Love,  like  a  bird  shut  apart, 

Wist  not  where  he  was  born. 

Through  the  long  nights  of  regret, 
Longing  and  sorrow  and  love, 

Life,  that  was  wilful  to  fret, 
All  the  old  heaven  above 

Forgot,  nor  was  sad  to  forget. 

Glad  is  the  heart  ere  it  break 
At  the  dear  bosom,  the  breath 

Hurried  and  hurt  for  love's  sake, 
Sweet  the  surrender,  the  death. 

Sweet,  at  her  breast  that  we  take ! 

Love  that  must  die  to  adore, 
All  of  itself  dispossessed, 

At  the  dear  bosom  gives  o'er; 
Glad  is  the  pain  at  her  breast 

One  with  the  self  we  adore ! 


Still  to  give  all  to  the  end 
To  tin-  most  loved  one  away, 

I.itV.  love  and  longing  to  spend; 
Self  itself  given  away, 

Touch,  tremble,  be  her,  and  end ! 

Yet  even  I  after  all. 

Dear,  of  those  prisoning  wiles 

Wearied,   of   words    musical. — 
Sad,  sweet  curving  of  smiles, 

l-'.y.  lid-,   that    flutter   and    fall. 

Scornful  and  pitiless  so, 
Caring  not,  carelessly  me, 

Sweet,  from  yourself  you  let  go 
Free  as  a  bird  that  is  free. 

Little  thru  did  I  know 

All  the  wild  anguish,  nor  how 
Haunts  the  last,  lovely  embrace, 

Pangs  of  remembrance — I  bow 
Here  in  tin-  shadow  my  face. 

Never  I  loved  you  till  now ! 

Many    a    1«>\,-    have   I    known, 
Yet  in  the  darkness  apart 

Love,  at  all  lips  not  your  own. 
Kiss.-s  still  faithful  at  heart 

Ever  the  first  lips  alone. 


76 

Ah,  the  kind  beauty,  the  first 

Lips  that  lured  us  to  love ! 
Breast  that  bowed  to  our  thirst 

First,  from  the  heaven  above, — 
Heart  Love  trembled  at  first! 

Once  on  a  night  that  is  gone, 
Once  in  a  twilight  adored, 

You,  in  your  beauty  alone, 

Sweet,  unsheathed  like  a  sword, 

Slenderly  trembled  and  shone. 

Once  lay  bared  to  your  spell 
All  of  the  heart  of  my  pain, 

Bared  as  the  earth,  where  it  fell 
Soft,  to  the  soft  Spring  rain, 

Wanton  and  wild  and  well. 

Reckless  with  love  and  with  laughter 
Where  are  you  vanished  away, 

Loved  and  forsaken,  and  after 
Followed  by  Love  all  the  way, 

All  the  long  journey  thereafter? 

Esther,  where  are  you  fled ! 

With  you  my  youth  went  down. 
Dear  delight,  are  you  dead, 

Slipped  the  Cyprian  crown, 
Love,  from  that  loveliest  head? 


77 
All  tin-  wild  dreams  that  Love  wove 

Once  for  temple  and  brow 
Waned,  and  the  halo  thereof  ! 

Whom  are  you  comforting  now  : 
Whom  do  you  give  of  your  love, 

Spoiled  and  despoiling?    Or  who 

Now  lies  meshed  in  those  smiles, 
All  the  sweet  snaring  of  you 

Caught,  the  old  lovable  wiles, — 

Ways  of  your  love  that  I  knew? 

Dear,  do  you  <rive  them,  nor  spare, 

All  the  old  secrets  to  him. 
Hand-touch  and  waft  of  the  hair! 

Is  he  or  sturdy,  or  slim, 
Dark,  or  ruddy  and  fair? 

Dark  and  dead  lies  tin-  town. 

Seeking  I  wander  astray. 
Lost  one,  my  lovrd  one,  my  own 

Youth  with  you  vanished  away, 
With  you  my  youth  went  down! 


LIFE 

"CEASE,  cease," — cries  the  voice  of  sorrow. 

But  still  a  voirr  through  all  our  pain 
Cries  out   at  tin-  br.  -ist   of  tin-  U'loved, 
"Be  born  again,  be  born  again  ! " 


78 

Then  at  the  hushed  and  the  holy  bosom, 

Ourselves  in  rapture  rendering  up, 
To  the  unseen  lips  beyond  we  pass  it, — 
The  anguished  and  the  immortal  cup. 


MOON-MIST 

LAST  evening  when  the  dew-drenched  veil 
Of  mist  and  moonlight  pearly  pale 
All  silver-soft  and  silent  lay 
Across  the  country  far  away, 
Again  I  seemed  to  see  you  come 
As  one  that  turns  at  twilight  home 
Over  the  glimmering  moonlit  fields 
And  meadows  that  the  lowland  yields. 

In  the  far  hollows  soft  asleep 

The  mists  like  flocks  of  trooping  sheep 

Cloudily  drifted  here  and  there, 

And  a  low  murmur  all  the  air, 

Of  crickets'  and  cicadas'  sound, 

Thrilled   through   the   meadows   miles   around,- 

A  sweet  susurrus  half-aloud. 

Nearer  you  drifted  like  a  cloud. 

Some  benediction  of  the  blessed, 
Some  hovering  pity  seemed  to  rest 
On  the  mild  country  twilight-stilled. 
Throughout  the  night  your  presence  thrilled, — 
That   haunting  aura   drawing  near; 
My  spirit  trembled  as  in  fear, 


79 

Or  joy,  through  all  that  lovely  dread 
Leeling  around  her  silence  shed 
Your  odorous  being,  dark  and  sweet — 
The  lingering  slowness  of  your  feet. 

Doubtful   I  learned   in  dreamy  mood. 

When,  suddenly,  before  me  stood 

Your  breathing  beauty  drenched  with  dew 

Of  dusk,  and  fragrant  through  and  through 

With  breath  of  the  wild  country   ways. 

Cool  with  wet  night  and  .shimmering  haze 

Of  gau/y  twilight  starry-clear. 

That    tangible    loveliness    SO    near, 

That   vehement  weight  .and   sweet  e\e>  M 

Of  vour  own  very  lovelim--. 

Almost    I    thought    to   reach  and  touch, 

Nor  dared   for  longing  overmuch. 

The  twilight's  trembling  web  of  light 
Hung  low  with  stars  and  drowsy  night; 
Lifting  an  everlasting  br< 
Swayed  cloudlike  with  the  wind's  mm  st 
That  lustrous  presence,  and  the  face 
Was  lifted  upward  for  a  space. 

Luminous  wen-  tl.-  <1  gra\  e. 

With  light  and  shadow  like  a  w 
Shot   through,   the  old   familiar   look 
Tint    first    my   soul    in    sen  iee   took. 
And   soft  the  solemn    lips   whose  ease 
Had  drunken  the  immortal   peace 


80 

Beyond  all  sorrow;  shadow-screened 
Against  the  garden  gate  it  leaned 
As  oft  of  old,  nor  seemed  to  know 
Whether  to  linger,  or  to  go. 

With  one  low  cry  of  longing  then 
I  would  have  caught  it  up  again — 
And  all  that  anguish!     But  it  laid 
Across  the  somber  lips  allayed 
A  silent  finger-tip,  the  eyes 
Smiled  on  the  hurt  of  my  surprise. 

The  cold  light  of  the  moon,  that  shone 
Cloud-covered,  quenched,  and  you  were  gone ! 

In  that  one  gesture,  as  by  chance, 
Your  whole  life's  pathos  at  a  glance 
I  read,  or  seemed  to  read — the  whole 
Elusive  secret  of  your  soul, 
Her  tender  mystery  and  shy 
Inviolable  virginity. 


COR  CORDIIM 

UNKNOWN  beloved  that  my  youth  is  seeking, 
Where  are  you  hidden  from  me  far  to-night, 

Amid    the    myriad    never-ending    faces. 

Patient  and  pure — a  lode-stir  and  a  light! 


81 
Sweet  allegories  in  the  world  around  me, 

Presage  and  parables  of  you  I  read ; 
But  prophecies  all  faces  loved  before  you, 

Heralds  and  hints  of  the  dear  face  indeed. 

O  God's  dear  candle  in  the  world-wide  darkness 
Burning  to  find  me  and  to  lead  me  home, 

Dear  resting-place  beyond  my  utmost  sorrow, 
Whither  my  lonely  footsteps  ever  roam! 

Out  of  the  troubled  sea  of  human  f.-i 

And  laboring  hearts  of  the  wild  world's  unrest, 

When  shall  the  doom-wave  bear  me  up  to  meet  you — 
The  most  compassionate  and  consoling  breast ! 


A  GIRL'S  EYES 

ONCE  in  the  crowded  city  street 

Your  eyes,  that  minr  did  chance  to  inert 
One  instant,   for  that   instant  took 
My  soul  in  through  such  depthless  look 
Of  clarid   innocence,  as  seemed 
Beyond   all   height   or  depth   undreamed. 
All   eloudh  M   ch-arness   of   their  own 
To  draw  and  drag  her  gmM   fir  down. 
Unveiled  by  subtle  miracle — 
Being's  unfathomable  well. 

One  instant  only.      and  t lie  whole 
And  sudden  wonder  of  a  soul 


82 

Lay  bared,  one  instant  on  the  brink 
My  spirit  trembled,  that  did  sink 
Through  you  a  meditative  space 
Into  the  soul  of  all  the  race. 

A  drop  of  the  great   Mother-sea, 
Out  of  your  eyes  looked  up  at  me 
An  atom  of  all  life,  the  vast 
And  ravening  Ocean  here  upcast; 
Borne  to  me  on  the  tide  before 
In  the  great  waters'  rage  and  roar 
We  hurried  by  forevermore. 

'Twas  but  a  wild  and  whirling  glance, 
And  yet  amid  the  dizzy  dance 
Of  Fate  and  Horror,  in  that  look 
A  sudden  recognition  took 
Each  of  the  other,  as  it  went 
A  silent  salutation  sent 
Across   the  outer   banishment. 

Passed  me  the  moment,  and  the  eyes 
Passed,  on  the  opened  paradise 
Rolled  back  the  everlasting  door 
And  all  the  street  was  as  before, 
A  secret  signed  and  sealed :  and  yet 
I  saw  it  and  shall  not  forget, 
Whether  we  ever  meet,  or  when, 
If  in  ten  thousand  years  again, 
Sweet,  by  that  look  shall  know  you  then  ! 


83 
A  LOVE-SONG 

LOVE  me  for  nothing  Time  may  take  away, 
But   for  my   very  self  that  must  endure, 

Fixed  as  the  stars  along  the  eternal  way, 

Strong  for  your  strength,  and  for  your  love's  sake 
pure. 

Then  though  this  glowing  force  and  frame  decline 
Through  gradual  changes  to  the  withered  worst, 

Still  through  tin-  veiled  defeat  you  shalt  divine 
The   immortal   soul  that  turned   to  you   at   first. 


APRIL  IN  NEW  ENGLAND 

Tm<   tender   Spring-time   twilight    flowerless   yct.- 

Btit  hopeful;  shy,  upon  her  heart  has  set 

A  single  blossom  simply,  as  might  do 

Some  little  country  m-iidm  that  a  few 

Flowers  entwines  amid  her  folded  hair. 

(For  lack  of  greater  largess)  to  make  her  fair 

And  lovelier  for  her  lover's  joy,  and  waits 

Solemnly  in  the  dusk,  and   hesitates 

With  sweet,  low  1-rows  amid  the  shadows  dim — 

Her  tremulous  loveliness — and  prays  for  him, 

Patient,  with  starful  ryes  and   lips  all  dumb. 

For  her  first  lover  that  he  soon  may  come. 


84 

MIDNIGHT 

Now  soft  slumber  seals  thine  eyes, 
On  thy  parted  lips  there  lies 
From  the  farthest  Paradise 
The  high  word  unspoken.     Now 
With  quiescence  o'er  thy  brow 
Slide  the  soothing  finger-tips, 
And  the  healing  Pity  dips 
In   the  most   serene  repose 
All  thy  being.     Like  a  rose 
Drooped  on  drowsy  evenings, 
'Round  thy  fragile  presence  clings 
A  sweet  perfume,  and  a  breath 
Still  on  the  near  marge  of  death 
Murmurs  of  thy  life.     But  thou, 
Sweet,  where  art  thou  fled,  or  how 
Shall  I  find  thee,  that  but  now 
To  my  longing  didst  lift  up 
The  immortal  pity's  cup 
And  thy  being  gavest  to  share ! 
Shall  I  find  them  anywhere, 
The  grave  eyes  and  pitying  hair? 
For  the  ancient  terrors  press 
'Round  me  and  the  lonelim  -^  : 
The  implacable   Daemon, 
Beauty,  lays  his  hand  upon 
My  hot  pillow  sleepless  now, 
And  on  the  accustomed  brow, 
The  pale  cave  of  many  songs. 
All  the  sorrow  in  me  longs 


85 

Sleepless  for  thine  answering  touch : 
Art  thou  vanished  then  so  much  ! 
It'  with  pleading'  hands  I  knoek 
The  barred  gates,  wilt  thon  unlock 
Those   hushed   gardens  of  thy  soul, 
Take  me  in  and  make  me  whole? 
Would  I,  too,  were  folded  in 
That  soft  silence,  and  the  din 
Vanished  of  the  outer  host, 
In   thy  being's  quiet  lost. 
Knoek  I  the  barred  gates  upon 
Vainly — nay,  for  thou  art  gone — 
In  the  end  we  are  alone. 

Foolish  search  and  folly  vain; 
Thou  art  vanished  in  disdain. 
Spurned  the  faintly  breathing  shell 
Still  of  thee  half  audible, 
Spurned  the  prison,  and  the  net 
The  sad   Fates  for  thee  have  set 
From  thy  feet  without  regret 
Shaken:   ri-en  sole  and  free 
In  its  native  dignity 
The  inviolable  self  of  thee. 
These  low  haunts  and  hurts  alxwe! 
All.  for  every  soul   we  love 
But   from   the  eternal   home 
:  saviour  still  doth  conn 
Sent,  a  summons  from  on  High 
To  the  ancient  Verity, 
The  pure  Beauty:   for  a  space 
Here,  a  little,  fleet  embrace, 


86 

In  the  night-time,  the  starlight, 
Couched  beside  us  in  the  night, 
Sounds  the  soft  recall,  the  lost 
Way  back  to  the  starry  host! 
Love,  that  whispers  the  astray 
The  forsaken  homeward  way, 
The  lost  secret  at  the  heart's 
Portals  murmurs, — and  departs. 

Now  I  see  thee  as  anew 
The  soft  veil  of  slumber  through, 
Purged  and  purified,  at  ease 
As  one  under  dreamful  seas 
Heaving  with  soft  tides,  and  know 
Thee  with  sudden  pity  so. 

0  dear,  fallen  angel  sent 
To  console  my  banishment! 

Hast  thou  wounded  with  me,  sweet, 
In  the  dust  those  quiet  feet? 
For  my  weakness  sacrificed 
And  my  fault  ex-paradised, 
So  to  tread  the  lower  way 
Of  long  sin  which  I  do  stray? 
Thou  predestined  to  the  quest 
Of  my   furious  soul's  behest, 
In  the  dark  and  dizzy  dance 

1  alien  against  her  heart  by  chance! 
O  then  in  remembrance 

All  the  bitter  cost  I  told 

Of  past  evils  manifold, 

In  one  brimming  cup  of  pain 

To  the  dregs  I   drained  it  then ! 


87 

pure  stars  in  solemn  pose 
Past  thy  framing  window  rose. 
High  Arcturus  and  the  Seven 
Throned  in  the  cerebral  heaven 
Like  sad  thoughts  upon  thy  sleep 
Shone;  but  I  that  could  not  keep 
All  that  anguish  in  control, 
Drifting  a  disbodied  soul, 
I. ike  a  larva,  on  the  bed 
Left  this  spectral  self  and  sped 
Upward  in  a  wild  prayer  borne 
To  the  Pity  beyond  scorn. 
Struggled  upward,  climbed  and  came 
Past  the  battlements  of  flame, 
Heaven's  turrets  ringed  arow 
And  the  trembling  earth  below, 
There  I  left  thee  slumbering  so. 

Stainful  and  all  unforgiven 
Yet  I  passed  the  gates  of  heaven, 
Beating  upward,  made  my  way 
Past  the  Splendors  in  array; 
Bowed  beside  the  silver  wave, 
Lo,  one  sat  serene  and  grave, 
Drooping  with  bowed  aureole. 
And  it  was  thy  \«  ry  soul 
In  IK T  maiden  paradise, 
But  deep  peace  was  on  the  eyes. 


88 

THE  GREAT  KINDNESS 

SORROWFUL  all  night  and  sleepless 

In  the  silent  room, 
At  my  side  I  felt  you  breathing 

Softly  through  the  gloom, 

The  dim  fragrance  of  your  slumber, 

Till  the  morning; — lo! 
Two  well  arms  and  wanton  caught  me 

Up  out  of  my  woe ! 

Generous  and  full  of  bounty 

Of  supreme  relief, 
The  dear  insolence  of  your  beauty 

Crushing  out  my  grief! 

Till  through  blinding  tears  I  felt  it, 
Through  glad  tears  again, 

The  kind  touch  of  the  great  gladness 
Reach  through  all  my  pain ! 


TO  A  YOUNG  GIRL  HEARD  SINGING 

I  HE  A  u  thy  voice  beyond  the  narrow  wall 

Cheerfully  rise  and  fall 

In  unpremeditated  mood  and  might 

Of  innocent  delight. 

O  careless  and  inscrutable,  and  wise 

Beyond  all  perplexities ! 

Let  me  bow  down  here  at  thy  viewless  feet 

In  adoration  meet, 


89 

For  happiness  is  holy,  and  the  bliss 
That  flows  from   IK  arts  like  tlii.s, 
And  beautiful  and  glad  it  is  to  live. 
Pity  me  and  forgive. 
Pity   inr   whom   the   implacable   Daemon 
Has  set  his  seal  upon, 

The  obsessive  seal  of  slakeless  song  and  whirled 
Wondering  across  the  world. 

Thy  virgin  aura  in  soft  snares  of  sound 

Shed  odorously  around, 

The  chaste  attraction  of  thy  life  a-flower, 

Lures  with  insistent  power. 

Fain  would  I  dip  into  thy  soul  and  drink, 

Trembling  on  the  dim  brink, 

Soft  Lethe  and  oblivious  uncontrol 

From  the  untroubled  chalice  of  thy  soul. 

V«-t  thee  I  may  not  reach  to  nor  come  near, 

To  mar  thee,  or  make  less  dear 

With  grief  of  mine  own   M-lf;   unlovelier,  touch 

Thee  throned  beyond  so  much 

So  far,  above  this  shamefuller  self  below 

Striigglingly  doomed  to  go 

With  tin-  lost  angels  evermore,  and  tread 

'11 1»    lower  ways  of  dread, 

Toward  the  lost  Paradise  to  rage  and  roam 

Whither  thou  art  at  home, 

Beat  at  the  gates  in  angry  grief,  and  long 

Backward  in  contrite  song. 


90 

Fain  would  I  reach  to  thee,  fain  touch  and  drown 

In  purity  of  thine  own. 

Full  peace  and  struggle  perfect, — not  for  me 

The  accomplished  ecstasy, 

Me  longingly  allotted  to  express, 

And  forego  loveliness; 

Nor  may  I  wound  thee  with  one  woe  of  mine 

To  make  thee  less  divine 

Clear  Ardour;  holier  than  mine  anguished  bliss 

Thy  natheless  joyance  is, 

That  dwellest  with  white  Beauty  cheek  to  cheek, 

Whither  I  sigh  and  seek, 

That  knowest  it  not,  and  liest  in  His  hand, 

Whom  I  to  understand 

Through  many  a  shame  and  bitter  thought  have  trod ! 

O  thou  asleep  in  God ! 

Thy  strifelessness  is  more  than  all  my  strife, 

Thy  lethe  than  my  life ! 

For  as  by  seeking  the  first  angels  fell — 

The  fault  inexpiable — 

So  all  we  move  through  sorrows  to  the  end, 

That  strive  to  comprehend ; 

Seeking  toward  the  old  peace  not  anymore 

Are  as  we  were  before, 

Nor  at  grave  eyes,  nor  on  no  loving  breast 

Beauty  allows  to  rest. 

But  thou,  clear  Joy,  if  ever  looking  back 

On   thine  accomplished  track 

Thou  turnest,  so  mayest  thou  glimpse  what  la  re  has 

been 
And  the  fierce  gulf  between: — 


91 

Beauty   at    rest  arrived   in   faith  and  face, 
And  Beauty  on  her  race 
Still  toiling  upward,  laboring  toward  thee 
And  what  thou  art,  to  be ! 


SICKNESS 

ERE  the  first  cock-crow  gave  the  warning, 
I'pon  my  sick-bed  in  the  morning 
I  thought  of  you  that  I  gave  my  youth  to, 
Her  whole  glad  heart  of  passionate  truth  to. 

Alas,  for  a  later  dream  I  left  you, 

And  from  my  heart  the  years  had  reft  you! 

Then  first  I  knew  it,  then  first  I  heeded 

How  much  I  had  loved  you,  how  much  I  needed. 

Ah  never  before  so  much  did  I  love  you, 
The   mystery  and   the  memory  of  you! 
I   hid  my  face  in  the  silent  pillow, 
The  years  rolled  over  me  like  a  billow. 

()  pitiless  love,  what  have  you  done  me, 
To  lay  tliis  yoke  of  your  beauty  on  me! 
There  with  bowed  head  I  did  atone  you 

For  e\ery  wrong  that   I   had  done  you. 


had  I  sought  to  forget,  but  ever 
Follows  me  everywhere  forever 
A  little,  riotous  shape  and  slender, 
My   slandered    Youth,  serene  and  tender, 


92 

The  small,  sweet  arms  so  kind  to  save  me, 
The  look  of  the  woman's  hands  that  gave  me 
The  cup  of  joy,  a  bounteous  measure, 
The  eyes  that  smiled  upon  my  pleasure. 

In  my  dreams  you  are  ever  by  me. 
I  wake  and  the  lovely  phantoms  fly  me, — 
Dreams  and  darkness  and  midnight  terror, — 
Which  is  the  truth  and  which  the  error? 

The  pale,  cold  clouds  the  moon  enwreathing, — 
I  lie  awake  for  the  sound  of  your  breathing, 
As  in  the  old  nights  without  number. 
I  miss  the  fragrance  of  your  slumber. 

I  miss  your  voice  in  the  morning  calling. 
I  wake,  and  the  April  rain  is  falling. 
Ah,  much  unkinder  things  have  found  me 
Since  last  your  arms  were  laid  around  me ! 

Fled  are  the  young,  glad  days  of  riot; 

The  rain  falls  and  the  room  is  quiet. 

And   O   I  need  your  beauty  to  hush  it, 

Crowd  out  the  pain  in  my  heart  and  crush  it, 

Stealing  around  my  sadness  slowly, 
To  weary  me  out  and  heal  me  wholly ! 
Dusk,  and  the  darkling  rain  to  screen  us, 
What  sorrow  could  get  in  between  us! 


93 

In  vain  I  wake  to  the  old  complaining, 

I  hear  the  sound  of  the  steady  raining: 

Out  of  my  sickness  and  my  sadness 

I  long  for  a  touch  of  the  old,  well  gladness. 

O  to  be  heart  on  heart  together 

Here  once  more  in  the  April  weather; 

Beauty  and  weariness  comprehended, 

And  the  pain  of  longing  and  longing  ended ! 


THE  SPIRIT  OF  LIFE 

OUT  of  the  secrets  of  your  eyes 
Looks  up  at  me,  most  grave  and  wise 
And  weary  from  long  lives  of  strife, 
The  ancient  mystery  of  Life, 
At  the  old  call  to  the  old  pain 
Forever  rearisen  again: 
Their  steadfast  patience  still  is  set 
Against  some  goal  far  distant  yet 

So  many  a  love  have  they  endured 
Long  ages  past  in  lives  obscured; 
In  Nineveh  or  Babylon 
A  slave,  or  from  some  ancient  throne 
Looked  out  like  morning,  in  the  dusk 
()t    ( -\  pr« -vv,  <l.ilc,  or  groves  of  musk, 
Trembled  through  lashrs  \v«  t   with  love 
Up  to  the  eager  eyes  abm-r. 


94 

When  at  your  somber  breast  I  lean, 
Her  tidal  ebb  and  flow  between 
Still  hear  I,  as  within  the  shell 
Of  the  great  ocean  audible, 
The  sad  and  inarticulate  roar 
Of  life,  and  ever  toward  the  shore, 
The  blood  beloved  with  every  breath 
Pour  on,  of  void  and  vasty  death. 

Yet  comes  an  hour  when,  face  to  face, 
Fear  dies,  death  fades,  and  pulses  race 
Joyous  and  gladly  to  the  doom; 
When  grave  your  eyes  amid  the  gloom 
Burn  against  mine,  looks  up  anew 
Their  dreamy  lids  and  lashes  through 
And  blinding  tears  of  mine,  to  me 
The  old,  sweet  lure  and  mystery, 
The  spirit  of  dear  Life;  and  clings, 
Tugs  at  my  heart  and  sways  and  sings 
The  sweet  Persuasion  like  the  Spring's, 
The  insatiate  Beauty,  at  your  breast 
Clamors  and  urges  with  unrest 
And  smiting  shock  of  lovely  pain, 
"Be  born  again,  be  born  again!" 


THE  WAVE  OF  LIFE 

As  the  still  moon  without  stir 
Draws  the  waters  after  her, 
The  sad  robe  of  all  the  sea — 
Silently  thou  drawest  me. 


95 

As  the  billows  on  the  shore 
To  be  broken  and  give  o'er 
Dash   themselves   in  dying  spray, 
So  I  give  myself  away. 

To  the  grave  pool  of  thine  eyes 
Draw  me  down  in  dreamy  wise, 
Till  I  tremble  on  the  brink, 
Dip  into  thy  soul,  and  drink 

Lethe  soft.     Ah,  dark  decease ! 
Not  the  wave  may  be  at  peace 
Till  it  shatter,  nor  Love  rest 
Save  at  the  beloved  breast. 


FOR  THEM  ALL 

At  night  through  the  city  in  a  song 
Like  a  cloud  I  drift  along. 

I  slip  into  the  shop-girl's  room, 
Soothing  her  eyes  amid  the  gloom. 

I  smooth  tin-  wrinkles  on  the  check 
Of  the  white  mother,  worn  and  meek. 

When-  the  lalwrer  sits  at    rest 

I  pour  sweet  dreams  into  his  bre-ist. 

The  old  man  and  the  little  child 
Bending  o'er  the  page  have  smiled. 


96 

Into  the  lover's  heart  I  stream, 
Like  the  beloved  in  a  dream. 

The  poet  and  the  lover,  too, 

I  drench  with  beauty  through  and  through. 

I  am  Beauty's,  and  I  move 
Lonely  amid  those  I  love. 

O,  poet,  lover,  mother,  child ! 
For  love  of  you  my  heart  is  wild. 

Out  of  this  very  page  I  cry 
Up  to  your  spirit:  this  is  I! 

Are  we  together  here  at  last? 
O  catch  me  up  before  'tis  past ! 

O  hold  me  close  against  your  breast ! 
There  alone,  at  last,  I  rest. 


IV 
FIRST  LOVE 


O  sorrowful  face  over  which   the  years  arc  a  veil! 
The  vanished  years  are  a  deep  veil  over  your  face, 
And  Love  whose  eyes  icere  bright  for  a  little  space, 

The  vanished  years  are  over  his  eyes  like  a  veil. 

0  sorrowful  face!      O  meek  and  sorrowful  face! 

I     ,innot  lore  you  as  once  I  hare  lured  you — but  see, 
r><'ndin<r  hack    with   the  sad  lips  of   memory, 

1  kiss  a  little  sadness  away  from  your  face! 


LOVE'S  LAUGHTER 

How  Love's  sweet  laugh  derides  our  dusty  doom 
Drowning  the  sullen  monoehord  of  woe; 
But  stop  her  lips'  laugh  with  thy  kisses — lo, 

Heyond  the  sky.  beyond  the  utmost  main 
The  hollow  murmur  of  the  pipes  of  pain. 
Droning  the  dance   adown  the  sounding  tomb! 


FIRST  RAPTURK 

O  LAY  your  arms  about  me  or  I  die  ! 

Tin-  di//v  hravi-n  of  stars  around  us  n  elf. 
Far  off  the  screech-owl  gives  a  tremulous  cry. 

And  a  sad  perfume  through  the  starlight  steals. 

A  thousand,  thousand  kisses  on  your  lips, 

More  than  the  stars  in  all  the  starry  Vast! 
A  thousand.  thousand  kisses  on  your  lips, 

Dear  love,   for  love's  sake,  till   they  ache  at  last! 


Ah.  why  is  it  that  those  we  love 

\Ve  wound  the  most,  or  are  most  apt  to  wound, 
K\<  n  MS  the  arrow  in  the  armed  host 

Strikes  her  long-lost  beloved  to  the  ground! 


100 

I  love  you,  and  I  love  you,  and  I  love  you ! 

Beneath  the  starry  eyes  bow  down  your  head. 
The  eyes  of  God  look  envious  above  you — 

For  very  joy  I  would  that  I  were  dead! 


THE  FOREST  OF  DREAMS 

WHEN  I  was  wandering  alone 
In  the  forest  of  silent  dreams, 

I  came  on  my  love  alone 

Sitting  beside  the  still  streams. 

I  laid  her  heart  to  my  heart, 
Sitting  beside  the  still  streams, 

And  I  heard  the  sound  of  her  In  art 
In  the  forest  of  silent  dreams. 


LOVE'S  SORROW 

ALAS,  your  beauty  is  like  a  flower 
Doomed  to  be  squandered  in  an  hour; 
Its  lover  is  its  greatest  foe, 
He  that  wills  it  kills  it  so. 

Alas,  your  beauty  is  like  a  dove, 
The  bright  eyes  and  the  delight  thereof, 
Prisoned  behind  Love's  golden  bars, 
Grow  dimmer  than  the  morning  stars. 


101 
Had  I  the  gift,  this  would  I  give — 

To  love  you.  and  yet  let  you  li\e. 

To  have   you.   and   yet    leave   you  still 

Inviolate  and  invincible! 


BY  THE  SEA 

LOOK,  on  the  ocean 

The    waves    are   asleep, 

With  a  quieter  motion 
The  little  waves  weep. 
Night  sinks  on  the  Deep. 

What  is  it  thou  fearest, 
Looking  anxiously  so? 

What   is    it   thou    hcarest? 
The  elves  as  they  go 
Sing   sadly    and    low. 

— O  my  darling,  my  dearest  ! 

Between  birth  and  sleep 
This  moment  is  ours. — 

While  wilt  thou  weep 

And  drop  all  thy  flowers, — 
And  all  thy  pair  flow-  r-  ! 


•  PREMONITION 

MUST  you  become  whom  I  have  loved  so  long 

Only  a  vagrant  song, 

You — that  mine  arms  have  known  so  many  a  time ! 

Alas,   I  have  striven  to  catch  you  in  a  word, 

Your  beauty  in  a  rhyme. 

Ah  no — and  can  it  be — ! 

Must  you  become,  whose  heart-beats  I  have  heard, 

Only  a  memory ! 


AT  DUSK 

LOOK,  before  us  reaches  the  wide  flat  sea 

Over  his  sands !     Now  in  this  moment  I  know 
Something  quiet  and  singing  lost  long  ago, 

Come  back  to  me. 

Lean  to  me,  do  not  laugh,  bend  down  from  above. 

O  piteous  head  the  days  and  the  years  shall  bow ! 

And  the  glad  love  I  love  you  with  utterly  now, 
All,  what  of  love ! 

Ah  for  a  little  now  do  not  laugh,  or  be  glad ! 

All  the  years  must  weary  and  leave  us  gray. 

We  shall  forget  all  the  glad  words  we  say, 
Grow  old  and  sad. 

O  hold  me,  hold  me — do  not  let  me  forget ! 

Throw  your  arms  about  me  closely,  lean  your  head- 
Say  the  old  words  again,  and  when  you  have  said, 

Whisper  them  yet! 


103 
SONG 

Yt>t  K  body  was  made  for  many  things,  O  love, 

lor  the  feasting  of  eyes  and  the  pleasure  of  many 
hands. 

And  the  clasping  of  weary  arms  bending  above, 
And  the  delight  of  lovers   in  starlit  lands, 

And  the  mouths  of  many  children  that  shall  cry  aloud 
As  they  press,  and  the  small,  soft  worm's  untiring 

mouth, 
\Vh.n    you    are   weary,    when   you    are    laid    in   your 

shroud, 

And  have  turned  your  back  on  love,  and  the  sun. 
and  the  south. 


THE  MOON  OF  SONd 

SWEET  —  lest  I  ever  forget, 

Look  on  me  now  with  thine  eyes; 
\Vhni  the  sun  of  my  love  is  set 

The  moon  of  my  songs  shall  arise. 

Love  that  loves   thee  alone, 

How  should  he  sing  of  thee  yet! 

Song  that  is   wild    with   regret 

Shall  sing  of  thcc  when  thou  art  gone. 


Song  that    is   wild   with 

R<  members  the  look  of  the  eyes; 
Whtn  the  sun  of  my   lovr  is  s.  t 

The  moon  of  my  songs  shall  arise. 


104 

LOVE  AND  DEATH 

Now  night  is  swarming  about  us  with  all  her  stars, 
Beside  the  sea,  we  two,  after  the  pain 

To  sit  and  dream,  how  sweet  it  is  and  sad 
To  sit  and  dream  again ! 

How  great  a  prophet  and  a  teacher  is  love 
That  in  all  things  images  the  "To  be," 

I  always  hated  death  and  the  dark  thought 
Before  love  came  to  me, 

And  all  the  body  temporal  and  faulty, 

And  all  sad,  common  things  that  feed  the  tomb; 

But  in  your  arms  I  understand  and  pity 
Their  sorrowful  high  doom. 

I  would  have  cried  "Let  all  things  die,  yea,  all  things, 

I  only  will  not,  I  will  not,  only  I !" 
Dear  love,  and  do  you  also  hasten  deathward 

Under  the  same  blind  sky! 

Against  your  lips,  deep  from  your  eyes  now  burning 
Grave  against  mine,  I  draw  with  dizzy  breath 

The  holy  pain  of  life,  and  all  the  splendid 
Glad  tragedy  of  death ! 


LOVE,  LISTEN  TO  THE  OLD  WORDS  AGAIN 

I.O\K,  listen   to   tlic  old  words  again, 

Your  eyelids   droop   so  tired, — 
Though    Time   and   Fate   and   bitter   pain 
Against   us   have  conspired, 

I  shall  always  love  you  as  before! 
Yt'(i-—n'hat  is  love  with  the  years  at  war! 
In    the  crt-ninf/  one  is  tired. 

Now  star  on  star  ascends  the  Deep, 
Your  eyelids  droop  so  tired, — 
O  I  will  cry  it  through  your  sleep 
As  if  all  heaven  choired! 

Her  heart  replies  not  any  more. 
She  has  heard  it  a  thousand  times  before. 
Sleep  has  closed  the  shadowy  door. 
—In  the  evening  one  is  tired. 


EVENING  PRAYER 

Now  through  the  dusk  the  straining  eye  discerns, 
Beyond    thr   clear   horizon's   cloudless   brim, 
A  single  taper  flaming  white  and  slim, 

Where  the  pure  star  of  holy  evening  burns. 

Big  Jupiter  across  the  silence  yearns, 

While   slowly   through   the   darkness  deep  and  dim 
Sirius  climbs  along  the  eastern  rim. 

And  the  great  glittering  wheel  of  heaven  turns. 


106 

I  pray  that  I  like  these  may  still  be  found 
Upon  love's  orbit,  be  it  day  or  night, 

Unvariable  through  all  the  years  and  days ; 
'Mid  lives  that  falter  and  blind  worlds  around, 
Irrevocable,  unweariable  and  bright, 
Wheeling  along  the  everlasting  ways. 


LOVE  AND  THE  UNIVERSE 

HIGH  up  in  heaven  a  crystal  music,  ground 

From  frost  of  the  sweet  chiming  wheels  that  roll, 
Tunes  star  to  star,  as  soul  to  answering  soul, 

From  high  Arcturus  to  the  deep  Profound. 

Orion  in  the  ocean  of  sweet  sound 

Moves  duly,  every  star  with  bright  control 
Upon  his  axis  rings  the  radiant  pole, 

And  the  immortal   framework  wheels  around. 

So  you  and  I   (even  as  the  planets  draw 

And  bind  each  other),  balance  love  with  love 

In  the  great  universe  of  night  and  day; 
Fixed  and  unchangeable,  with  love  for  law, 
(And  both  immortal)  'round  each  other  move, 
Eternal  and  invariable  as  they. 


SONG 

ON  beaches  and  dunes 
The  starlight  asleep 

Lies  like  a  veil- 
Why  wilt  thou  weep ! 


107 

Thou  wert  but  so  happy 

One  moment,  and  yet 
Now  thine  eyes  droop, 

Thine  eyelids  are  wet 

I   love  thee,  I  love  thee: — 

Lift  up  thine  head. 
O  thou  art  beautiful! 

Would  I  were  dead ! 

Would   I  might  drink 

Of  thy  kisses  and  die, 
While  the  stars  in  a  web 

Hang  low  in  the  sky! 

Nay — thy   pale   tears 

Fall  down,  one  by  one. 
O  my  sweetheart,  my  darling, — 

What  have  I  done! 

The  young  virgin  moon, 

On  the  waters  asleep, 
Hangs   like   a   sword — 

Why  wilt  thou  weep! 


FRAILTY 

I):  \n  love,  how  like  a  fading  dream 
'Mid   the    Immensities   you   seem! 

In    the   blind    universe   of   things 
The  thought  of  you  beats  weary  wings, 


108 

Made  laughable  by  all  the  stars 
And  Time  that  on  your  beauty  wars; 
Yet  in  you  lies  my  hope,  my  doom, 
My  resurrection,  and  my  tomb. 


SEA-SPELL 

SWEET  love,  look  up  a  little  ere  love  be   fled, 
Lift  up  thine  eyes,  sad  love,  undauntedly, 
A  little  while,  here  by  the  sleeping  sea, 

Before  the  night-time  and  the  dawn  are  dead. 

Lift  up,  sad  love,  the  wonder  of  thine  head; 

Lo — it  is  lovely  now  and  loved  of  me ! 

I  shall  not  always  love  so  perfectly. 
Sweet  love,  look  up  a  little  ere  love  be  fled. 

I  shall  forget  thee  and  the  words  we  said, 
I  shall  forget  thee  and  the  love  of  thee — 
Ah  love,  ere  sunrise  slant  upon  the  sea, 

Sweet  love,  look  up  a  little  ere  love  be  fled ! 


WOMAN 

Now  you  have  come  to  me, — the  sea  is  dark  and  still, 
The  dunes  shut  out  the  wind,  here  where  we  sit 

alone — 
Here  may  we  watch  the  stars  together,  and  take  our 

fill 
Of  silence  and  of  night  and  the  sea's  ancient  moan. 


109 

Lo — you  have  wandered   down  through   all  the  old- 
world  ways, 

Your  arms  are  Cleopatra's,  Helen's,  Semiramis', 
Who   clasped    the   whole   wide  world   and   heal< •<!    it 

with  a  kiss, 

And  you  the  mother  of  men  through  all  the  changing 
da\ 

O  with  a  fierce  child-love,  as  for  a  mother,  I  cry 
For  the  sacred  source  of  things,  whence  I,  too,  have 

my  breath, 

—To  draw  you  down  to  my  heart  and  feel  your  pity 
ing  sigh, 

While  myriad  unborn  souls  call  from  the  wastes  of 
death ! 


TO  A  WOMAN 

PRESS  your  close  face  up  to  the  glass, 
That  is  so  still  and  pure  and   fine: 

See  where  the  sea-mews  pass  and  pass. — 
The  dipping  sky  is  red  like  wine. 
The  sea  beats  the  shore  in  a  long  line. 

I  <  t  it  lean  upward  to  the  night's, 

That  is  so  full  of  strange,  wide  things, 

Of  steady  and  of  starry  lights, 
Of  memories  and  wondrrings. 
— Sleep  leaps  the  west  with  white  wings. 


110 

It  is  full  of  dreams  that  fade  and  fall, 

Love  will  not  let  it  smile  nor  rest, 
The  unborn  children  call  and  call. 

It  is  crowded  with  dumb  dreams  from  the  west: 

Age  comes  soon  with  a  great  rest. 


SEA-MIST 

THE  mist  is  on  the  sea,  and  over  the  long  dunes 
The  long  mist  stretches  blindly  to  the  sea. 

Here  on  this  bleak  side  beyond  the  gray  lagoons 
What  a  childhood  song  creeps  on  the  waves  to  me, 
With  a  low  sound,  with  a  soft,  low  sound  of  the  sea ! 

0  when  the  heart  sings  with  dumb,  hovering  tunes, 
How  may  we  endure  the  songs  beyond  the  sea — ! 

All  the  flying  light  and  splendor  of  glad  Junes 

Hurrying  with  the  years  where  no  glad  years  be, 
With  a  low  sound,  with  a  soft,  low  sound  of  the  sea ! 

1  will  rise  and  sing  after  the  dead  moons, 

I  will  rise  and  sing,  knowing  we  are  more  free, 
More   strong  than   Time   or   Fate;   but   here   by   the 

lagoons 

O  do  not  sing  at  all,  but  lean,  O  lean  to  me, 
With  a  low  sound,  with  a  soft,  low  sound  of  the  sea ! 


Ill 

SELF-SURRENDER 

Now  the  night 

Draws  along, 
Shade,  and  light 

Shift  and  throng; 
Through  the  twilight  steers  my  spirit  to  your  spirit 

In  a  song. 

Ah   who  knows 

What  we  are, 
Sweet,  who  knows ! 

Very  far 
Dwells  the  single  soul  apart  from  all  souls, 

Like  a  star. 

Yet  again 

On  her  quest, 

Drunk    with    pain. 

Toward  your  bread 
Like  a  seeking  angel  gropes  all  im 
Unexpressed. 

O  my  dove  ! 

O  my  sweet ! 
O  my  love, 

At  your  t'<  .  t 

Here,  my  spirit  in  my  song  wholly  bared, 
Lies  complete  ! 


112 

VISTAS 

BEYOND  the  dark,  wide  sea  lie  the  enchanted  isles, 
Beyond  the  long  horizon  a  music  calls  to  me; 

I  see  it  in  the  sadness  and  smiling  of  your  eyes, 
I  hear  it  in  the  far-off  rustling  of  the  sea. 

0  sweet  lands  lost  at  birth  that  we  shall  never  find ! 

0  glad  life  passing  by  and  things  that  cannot  be! 

1  see  it  in  the  sadness  and  smiling  of  your  eyes, 

1  hear  it  in  the  far-off  rustling  of  the  sea. 


VALE 

THE  last,  late  swallow  is  fled 

And  all  the  hope  of  the  heart. 
The  summer  is  over  and  dead. 

Forever  and  ever  to  part — ! 

The   summer  is   over  and   dcad,- 
But  what  of  the  hopeless  heart ! 

Come,  for  the  swallow  is  fled ! 

Come  away  silent  heart, 
Silent  with  dreams  that  are  dead. 

Come — for  you  cannot  stay 

Nursing  your  restless  heart 
All  in  the  dusk  of  the  day. 


113 

('dine      for  when  all  has  been  said 

What  is  there  more  to  say! 
The  summer  is  over  and  dead. 

The  last,  late  swallow  is  fled 

Silent  into  the  south — 
But  O  the  curve  of  her  throat ! 

O  the  sound  of  her  voice, 

Th.    kisses  of  her  mouth  ! 
— The  summer  is  over  and  dead. — 


CRESCENDO 

AND  now  the  time  is  come  and  I  must  go.  — 

Turn  from  me,  turn  your  head,  and  turn  away, 

So  that   your   ryes   have   not    that   quirt    look,  —  so 
Leastwise   I   may  ^o  dreaming  the  long  way. 

your  arms,  give  my  heart  room  to  pray! 


Ah  that   it  should  be.  that  the  things  we  feel 
Fade,  and  we  cannot  fix  in  one  sharp  cry 

Their   .stillness!     Over  the   long  sea-dunes   steal 
The   sea-mists,  and   beyond    their  whiteness   lie 
!i,  and  old  age,  and  loveless  things  that  die. 


114 

Turn    back    once    more — O    take    me    with    all    your 

strength ! 

Wound  me  with  love,  slay  me  until  life  dies ! 
That  I  may  never  see  again,  that  I  may  never  come 

at  length 

To  the  loveless  faces,  the  empty,  weary  eyes ! 
O  cover  me  with  your  love  that  I  may  never  rise ! 


SERENADE 

THE  stars  are  out,  and  the  heavens  are  silent  and  very 

deep! 
My  heart  was  wakeful  and  wild,  and  hungry  to  be 

with  the  stars, 
I  rose  and  came  to  thy  window,  but  thou,  my  beloved, 

sleep. 

Sleep,  though  my  heart  be  wild  and  wakeful  and  full 

of  unrest; 
The  crickets  are  still,  and  the  breezes  creep  in  at 

thy  window,  sweet: 
Thy  right  arm  is  under  thy  head,  and  thy  left  lies 

over  thy  breast. 

Sleep  till  the  wind  be  dead  and  the  stars  swoon  out 

of  the  skies, 

The  world  is  full  of  laughter  and  weeping  and  pas 
sionate  prayer; 

More  soft  than  the  night  on  the  waters  are  thine  eye 
lids  over  thine  eyes. 


1 1:> 

I    lay   in   my  chamber  dreaming,  but  my  heart  would 

leave  me   no   rest; 
I    thought,   \vhen   the   morrow   dawns   I   shall    never 

<    her  again — 

And  my  heart  grew  loud  in  my  veins,  my  heart  grew 
mad  in  my  breast. 

I  said:  "I  will  rise  and  go  and  sing  to  her  in  the  night; 
She  will  wake  from  her  sleep  and  come,  and  come 

to  me  where  I  sing, 
And  come  to  ray  arms   where  I  stand,  alone,  in  the 

pale  starlight." 

But  sleep,  it  is  better,  beloved,  than  vexing  thee  with 

my  erics; 
The  world  is   full   of  laughter,  and  weeping,  and 

passionate  prayer: 
More  soft  than  the  night  on  the  waters  are  thine  eve- 

lids  over  thine  eyes. 

Old   dreams,  old  loves,  old  desires,  and   all    the  old 

wonderings 
Of   the    piteous    bygone   loves   wail    'round    at    thy 

window,  swret  ; 
Hut  thou  art   weary,  beloved,  yea,  weary  of  all  these 

things, 

\Veary  of  all  these  tiling  and  sick  of  the  earthly  bars 
That   sever   spirit    from   spirit      the   little   things   of 

the  world. 
O  thou  borne  into  my  soul  from  beyond   the  \\<r]\t  of 

the  stars! 


116 

The  old  loves  will  not  be  hushed,  they  wail  and  weep 

without  rest. — 
The  crickets  are  still,  and  the  breezes  creep  in  at 

thy  window,  sweet; 
Thy  right  arm  is  under  thy  head  and  thy  left  lies 

over  thy  breast. 

Sleep  till  the  wind  be  dead  and  the  stars  swoon  out 

of  the  skies: 

The  world   is   full  of  laughter,  and  weeping,   and 
passionate  prayer, 

More  soft  than  the  night  on  the  waters  are  thine  eye 
lids  over  thine  eyes. 


DEPARTURE  AT  DAWN 

Now  all  the  east  is  tired  of  the  twilight, 

And  the  world's  borders  blossom  like  a  rose, 

And  the  world's   tapers  tremble  and  grow  dim; 
Under  the  cloud-line,  under  the  gray  twilight, 
Under  the  pale,  cold  arch  of  heaven's  rim 
The  low  white  fire  of  the  morning  glows, 

And  a  clear  wind  is  wandering  in  the  meadows — . 

0  queenly  heart,  never  again,  again 

Shall    this    thing   be,    or   this    sweet   wonder   be! 
I  take  my  way  through  the  unending  meadows, 

Through   the   long  fields   Ix-sidc   the   sunless   sea 

1  take  my  way,  I  pass  from  your  domain. 


117 
The  awful  Fire  winter  than  the  morning, 

The  holier  Hame   followed   through  day  and  day 

Burns  to  a  purer  light  the  old  blind  love; 
I'ndrr  tin    infinite  arches  of  the  morning 

I  move  with  a  new  gladness;  high  above 
The  first  stars  fade,  and  I  am  far  away. 

I  have  found  one  thing  more  high  than  the  old  heaven, 
More  sweet  than  all  sad  things  save  only  one, 

Y'-s, — and   more   sweet    than   your   two  folded 

hands. 

Sleep  and  forget ;  the  opening  gates  of  heaven 
Flood  with  a  sudden  pain  the  empty  lands 
And  the  old  wonder  wakes;  but  I  am  gone. 


A  CUV 

Si  IK  is  gone  forever  and  rver 

And  the  loathed,  unloving   faces 
Press   'round   me   and    leave-   me   never. 

I   am  set  in  the  lonely  places. 

O   passionate   heart    forever 

The  loathed.  unloNing  faces! 

1    wish   they   would   leave  me  alone 
To  think  of  her  in  my  heart, 

Unseen,  unnoticed,  unknown. 

()  loathed,  unloving   f   , 

LeftTC  me  to  sit   apart. 
Apart  in   the   lonely  places! 


118 

I  said:  "I  will  build  in  my  heart 
A  paradise  out  of  the  world, 
And  live  in  my  world  apart." 

I  said:  "I   shall  see  her  never 

In  the  body,  well  even  so, 
I  will  live  in  the  spirit  forever." 

God  said  to  me,  "This  cannot  be. 

You  are  little  more  than  the  brute, 
Shall  body  and  spirit  agree!" 

I  wish  that  my  love  would  come 

And  lay  her  lips  to  my  lips 
And  kiss  me  till  I  were  dumb! 

I  wish  she  would  bend  her  head 

And  red  lips  over  my  throat, 

And  rise  up,  and  leave  me  dead ! 


SUMMER  NIGHT 

THE    starlight   crept   in    at    my   window    through    th»- 

apple-tree  branclu-s  above, 
The  wind  moaned  over  the  meadows  and  swayed  my 

curtains  around, 
And  my  heart  grew  hungry  again  for  the  face  of  the 

old,  lost  lovr, 

I  could  not  sleep  for  the  pain  of  starlight  and  wan 
dering  sound. 


119 

The  cry  of  tin-  eriekets  grew  faint  and  waned  on  the 

shimmering  air. 
I    saw   the  long  dim  meadows  sloping  down  to  the 

sea. 
I  could  not  sleep  for  the  silence  and  the  utter,  blind 

despair, 

I  could  not  rest  for  desire  of  the  old  love  to  com 
fort  me. 

I  rose  and  held  out  my  arms  alone  in  the  pale,  cold 

light. 
I    prayed    for   the   old,   lost   love;    but   beyond   my 

window-bars 
I  saw  his  proud,  white  form,  as  of  one  in  the  restless 

night 

Moving     far-oil',     disconsolate,     under    the     lonely 
stars. 


NKiHT  AND  MF.MORY 

AII  day  I  banish  thee  from  out  my  heart, 
All  day  amid  the  unsuspecting  throng 
I  drown  thy  face  with  laughter  and  with  song 

And  daylight  olraves   us   like   a    s\v.»rd    apart. 

Hut   night   with  her  great  silence  sets  me  free; 

'I'll,  n  am    I    thine  again  at    last,  at    last—! 

Night   eomei  to  me  out  of  the  hollow  Vast 
With   myriad   stars   and   memories  of  thee. 


120 

TO  THE  EVENING  STAR 

O  STAR,  like  my  own   beloved's   eyes  brimming  with 

tears, 

Deep  in  the  forehead  of  the  western  eternity! 
Have  you  a  deep  compassion  on  me,  even  as  she 
Whose   beauty  like   yours   shines   steadfast   over   the 
years ! 

In  the  pale  morning  her  pity  of  me  falls  like  the  dew, 
In  the  splendor  of  noon  her  love  enfolds  me  about; 
Beyond  the  loud  rabble  and  the  innumerable  rout, 

Her  memories  of  me  in  the  evening  arise  with  you. 

If  I  fly  beyond  the  morning's  bared  and  immaculate 

breast 

Shall  I  find  her  at  last,  or  over  the  westering  wave? 
Her  brows  are  broad  and  her  eyes  are  steady  and 

grave, 
O  holy  stir,  like  yours  in  the  heaven  of  the  west ! 


AN  EMPTY  HOUSE 

CRY  not  aloud  against  your  lot- 
Bow  not  your  head  upon  your  knee. 

Strive  not  with  the  strength  that  availeth  not 
By  the  long  beach  with  the  things  that  be, 
"It  is  vain,"  saith  the  sea. 


121 

This  is  her  room,  this  is  where  she  slept 

In  the  old  years,  here  where  the  waves  broke 

On  the  gray  shore,  and  the  little  waves  crept 
Whispering  of  the  middle  sea  as  they  spoke; 
This  is  where  she  woke. 

She  is  gone,  she  is  gone, — and  the  waves  fall 
In  the  old  familiar  way,  the  cricket's  shrill 

Drops,  and  the  sea  makes  no  sound  at  all; 
Save   for   the  cicadas   on  the  hill. 
It  is  still,  it  is  still. 

She  is  gone,  she  is  gone,  and  there  is  no  cause 
For  any  weeping  or  sorrow,  there  is  no  need 

For  any  silence;  though  the  old  dreams  pause, 
New  dreams  arise  as  the  new  years  speed, 
As  the  years  recede. 

Only  high  up  among  the  stars 

Out  of  the  long  ages  roll 
Echoes  of  one  striving  against  the  bars 

Of  Time  toward  some  white  goal. 

It  is  the  "I,"  it  is  the  soul. 

Nrvn-  though  the  new  years  bring  new  joys  to  keep 
Shall  it  turn  to  one  as  in  the  old  delight. 

Never  in   all   the  years  again   shall   you  sleep, 
Hi  r.    l>y  the  sea,  by  the  starlight, 
In   the   niirht,  in  the  night. 


122 

THE  THOUGHT  OF  HER 

MY  heart  is  like  a  troubled  sea 
Where  for  a  moment  rest 

My  thoughts,  like  sea-birds  wearily 
On  a  white  breast. 

They  rise  again  and  they  are  fled, 
Passed  as  the  winds  that  pass, 

But  one  sits  with  a  wearier  head, 
Longer  alas ! 

A  long,  long  time  he  sits  and  dreams — 
It  is  the  thought  of  you — 

Then,  rising  on  the  unbounded  streams, 
Vanishes,  too. 


NEW  LONGING 

ALL  the  night  in  my  heart 

The  dreams  of  you  flow  deep  and  still  as  the  night. 

When  the   gray  morning  dawns 

I  am  as  sad  as  the  morning,  as  faint  as  the  light. 

All  the  long,  long  day 

I  think  but  of  you  beyond  the  horizon's  bars. 

When  the  first  twilight  comes 

The  thoughts  of  you  in  my  heart  awake  with  the  stars. 


1*1 

0  my  love,  ray  love, 

'I'd  it  the  world  were  rolled  away  between  us  two! 
'Mid  all   the  stars  and  the  worlds 

1  thirst  for  you  alone  and  for  only  you. 

Would  I  might  lose  my^«  It 

In   you,   become   part   of  you   in   the   blood   and   the 

breath, 

Breathe  you  and  die  of  you 
Once,  and  be  one  with  your  beauty  forever  in  death! 


A  LAST  LETTER 

FORGIVE  me,  dear,  this  last  and  vain  delay, 
This  desperate  utterance  and   foolish  boast 
Of  all  my  love  of  you,  the  thought  that  most 

Now   in  this  urgent  hour  I  long  to  say; 

H«  fore   in  the   full  dawning  of  the  day 

Love's  twilight  wane,  and   with   the   irradiate   host 
Of  stars  and  dreams   retiring,  like  a   ghost 

Down  the  long  aisles  of  Time  I  fade  away. 

Treasure  my  love  and  keep  it  ever  n«  w 
I  charge  you,  dear,  as  an  anointing  kiss 

I'pon   your  spirit  through   the  days  to  be; 
Nor  grudge   me  this   last    aching  cry   to  you. 
Wrung   from   a  soul   departing.      After  this 
Is  the  long  silence  of  eternity. 


124 

LAST  WORDS 

THINK  of  the  love  eternal  as  the  stars, 

Dear   heart,   when   the   pale   twilight  of  the   day 
Falls  like  a  veil  between  us  far  away, 

And  evening  broods  above  her  dusky  bars. 

When  in  high  heaven  the  lonely  planets  burn, 
And  on  your  quiet  room  you  close  the  door — 
Think   of   the  love   that  lives    forevermore, 

Though  far  from  you  and  hopeless  to  return. 

And  though  the  thought  of  joy  that  others  had, 
And  our  eternal  sorrow  drown  your  smile, 
Think  on  this  wonder  for  a  little  while 

I  pray  you,  dear,  and  be  not  very  sad. 


ACROSS  THE  WORLD 

SAD  love  adieu ! 

So  far  away  you  are, 

Not  evening  nor  the  wings  of  the  morning  furled 

About  the  breast  of  the  world 

Shadow  and  light  at  the  same  time  us  two. 

Farther  than  the  farthest  star 

Hung  on  the  bosom  of  morning,  still  more  far 

Than  the  sea's  sound  you  dwell; 

If  in  ten  thousand  years  we  should  meet  again 

By  those  eyes  I  should  know  you  then. 

Dear  love,  farewell! 


SONG  RETURNS 

()i  11  \    I    fly  thrr.  wandering  far  apart, 

But  I  come  l>ark  to  thee, 
As  weary  streams  tliat   from  the  mountains  start, 

To  the  eternal  sea. 

Often  I  fly  thce,  knowing  what  thou  art, 

But  I  come  back  to  thee — 
And  Sonir  with  tired  wings  and  tired  heart 

To  the  great  memory. 


PHANTOMS 

Hi  luiKN   thr  stars  and  the  grass 
What  shape  is  seen  to  pass 

(her  the  starlit  and  over  thr  white  lands! 

()  it  is  my  love,  my  love,  with  the  small  feet  and 
the  white  hands! 

Her  trailing  garim-nts  sweep 

The  grass  like  a  still  sleep, 

Kndlessly  ait.r  her  rise,  and  row  on  row 

Bow  the   white   phantoms,  memories  of  long  ago. 


I  stir  and  stir.  — 
Shall    I    go    up    to    hrr 

Al  in  the  old  days?     ()  hut  it  were  sweet 

To  pace  again  to  thr  tune  of  hrr  small,  sweet  feet! 


126 

ILLUSION 

WHEN  Spring  was  come  over  the  lonely  hills 

I  thought  of  one  who  was  not  come  with  the  Spring; 
I  said  I  will  rise  and  seek  her,  following 

Where  the  heart  wills. 

Surely  I  know  love  is  a  joyous  thing, 

Therefore  will  she  not  come  to  me  when  she  wills, 
Dancing  along  the  meadows,  skipping  upon  the  hills, 

And  laugh  and  sing! 

There  is  nothing  lying  beyond  the  hills, 

No  sweet,  lost  land  or  love,  or  anything — 

Only  the  wind  cries  and  the  flowers  spring 

Along  the  rills. 

Give  me  back  the  things  that  the  heart  wills! 

Give  me  back  the  land  where  the  stars  sing! 

I    wander  over  the   meadows   murmuring, 
C'rying  beyond  the  hills. 


FAREWELL 

Farewell — and  now 

Upon  your  forehead  silently  I  press, 

As  from  a  father,  with  grave  tenderness, 

A  somber  kiss,  and  on  your  brow. 


127 

And   this   that    lit  s 

Upon    your   eyelids  coldly   is   the  kiss 

Of   the    new    friend    -and    tliis 
A  lo  you  even  as  he  dies. 


SONG 

I   SHALL  not  love   you  again 

As  in  the  days  before, 
April   and    April's   pain 

Return  —  ah  nevermore  ! 

Your  voice  when  you  used  to  call, 
The  little  ways  you  had— 

I    have    forgotten   them  all, 
And  yet  I  am  not  sad. 

V.  little  thought  of  you 

Between   my   breath   and   breath 

.  as  memories  do 
To   veil   tin-    face  of  death. 

I    pray  d    not    forget 

(hice.  in   a   vain   despair; 

I   cannot  even    n-gret 

Now,  that    I   cannot  care. 


in    the    waning 
I  am  not   «  -\<  n   s  -d  : 
Mv   heart  sing*  through  the  night, 
1  1  ill'  sorrowful,    half-  glad, 


128 

"I  shall  not  love  you  again 

As  in  the  days  before, 
April   and  April's   pain 
Return — ah  nevermore !" 


EPILOGUE 

I  HAVE  sung  many  songs  for  you  sadly,  what  shall  I 

sing 

O   irrevocable   love,   now   the   veiled    evening    falls 
Over  my  youth,  and  the  vast  and  the  mournful  walls 

Of  my  earlier  dreams  crumble  down  slowly  withering ! 

Night  treads  the  heels  of  day,  Spring  follows  Spring, 
The  dark  horror  and  the  hollows  of  the  starry  halls, 
The  cruel  vastness  of  the  universe  enrages  me  and 
appalls, 

Wherein  your  dear  memory  falters  on  unavailing  wing. 

O  unnamed  beloved,  how  have  I  done  you  this  wrong! 
Not  age,  nor  the  dusty  doom,  nor   generations   that 

are  strong 
Can  crush  the  love,  deep  within  me,  that  labors 

here  for  breath  ; 
Higher  than  the  orbs  and  the  stars  and  the  whirling 

wheels, 
The  worlds  of  inexorable   matter,  my   spirit    reels 

Drunk  with  a  defiance  stronger  than  the  tyranny 

of  death! 


NARRATIVE  AND  DRAMATIC 
POEMS 


For  all  sad  things  and  all  glad  things  that  are 
Mi/  grateful  spirit  singing  makes  reply, 

For  love,  for  roses,  for  the  evening-star, 
For  sorrow  and  for  hope,  before  I  die. 

The  vast  race-memory  of  the  ages  gone 

Broods  through  rnc  wildly  with  a  vague  regret, 

Helen,  and  Iscult,  Troy,  and  Babylon — 
Those  ancient  sorrows  I  remember  yet. 

Into  the  somber  caverns  of  my  sleep 

The   challenge   of  all    Being   rolls   along, 
And  my  soul  echoes  backward  from  the  Deep 
A  ringing  rapture  and  defiant  song! 


131 
CORPUS  EST  DE  DEO 

Lo — say  the  wise,  say  the  very  wise — 
"Only  the  soul  is  of  God"  say  they, 
"She  shall  not  perish  or  pass  away — 

But  the  flesh  dies,  but  the  fair  flesh  dies." 
Corpus  est  de  Deo. 

This  is  the  time,  this  is  the  sweet  time, 

How  that  Lord  Christ  was  risen  from  death, 
All  we  shall  sing,  all  we  that  have  breath, 

In  a  glad  rhyme,  in  a  low  glad  rhyme; 
Corpus  est  de  Deo. 

One  Joseph  said,  and  good  Joseph  said, 
"That  I  might  bear  the  body  away 

And  the  white  body  in  sepulchre  lay. 
And  tin-  heavy  head,  the  heavy  head  .'" 
Corpus  est  de  Deo. 

And  to  His  place,  to  His  secret  place 

Lo — one   was   carried   sick   with    sleep, 
With  huddling  steps  when  the  night  was  deep, 
With   slow   pace,   and    with   slow  pace. 
Corpus  est  de  Deo. 

With  myrrh  and  spier,  with  fresh  myrrh  and  spice, 
And  linen  white,  the  white  body  they  Ixmnd ; 
This  .saw   from  a  more  removed  ground 

M  iry's  eyes  and  the  Magdalene's  e\  <  - 
Corpus  est  de  Deo. 


132 

With  spices  sweet,  with  fresh  spices  sweet, 
In  tomb  they  laid  the  body  away, 
"O   piteous   Lord,   Master !" — cried  they, 
And  "the  wounded  feet,  O  the  wounded  feet!" 
Corpus  est  de  Deo. 

With  their  own  hands,  with  their  own  sad  hands 
They  closed  the  door  with  a  massy  stone, 
There  none  remained  but  the  watch  alone, 

— On  His  wrist,  bands,  on  His  feet,  grave-bands, — 
Corpus  est  de  Deo. 

Still  was  around,  deep  still  was  around, 

There  was  none  wept  with  a  covered  face, 
There  was  none  mourning  about  the  place 

With  a  low  sound,  with  a  sad,  low  sound. 
Corpus  est  de  Deo. 

Master  arise,  good  Master  arise! 
Nay,  for  a  little  a  sleep  is  sweet. 
Desire  there  was  not  in  His  feet, 
And  in  His  eyes  no  light  for  His  eyes. 
Corpus  esi  de  Deo. 

With  sound  of  might,  with  sound  of  great  might, 
The  white  grave-clothes  \vere  rent  in  sunder, 
With  a  terribleness  and  wonder, 

And  a  great  light  and  fire  of  light ! 
Corpus  est  de  Deo. 


133 

Be  you  all  glad,  be  yon  now  all  glad, 

Be  glad  in  your  soul  for  your  great  gladness! 
His  spirit  sprang  from  the  night  and  sadness, 

And  was  not  sad, — lo — and  was  not  sad  ! 
Corpus  ,-st  de  Deo. 

Put  by  vain  shame,  put  by  your  vain  shame, 
Loosen  your  hair,  and  your  lips  with  song! 
Out  of  the  darkness  that  is  most  strong 

His  body  came,  His  fair  body  came. 
Corpus  eft  de  Deo. 

Lo — say  the  wise,  say  the  very  wise, 
"Soul  is  of  God,  the  body  a  vain  tiling." 
Dance  with  your  feet,  let  your  mouth  sing! 

Lift  up  your  eyes,  lift  up  your  sad  eyes! 
Corpus  est  de  Deo. 

In   every   plac«-  say   they,  in  each  place. 

;!   is  of  God,  the  body  of  shame"— 
Out  of  the  dust  His  sweet  body  came 
And  blood  to  His  face,  to  His  sweet  face. 
Corpus  est  de  Deo. 

()   wondrous   thing!     O  most   blessed  thing! 

B(x]y   and   soul   of  one   grrat   birth — 

All  ye  that  are  of  dust   and   earth 
Lift  up  and  sing,  lift  ye  up  and  sing, 
"Corpus  est  <lc  Deal" 


154 

THE  DESCENT  OF  QUEEN  ISTAR  INTO 
HADES 

(Istar,  slighted  in  her  love  for  Idzulmr  and  mad  with  jeal 
ousy,  seeks  revenge  in  the  abode  of  Allat,  the  realm  of 
the  god  Irkhalla,  the  lands  of  Death.) 

To  the  mute,  to  the  inexorable  land 

Istar,  daughter  of  Sin,  inclined  her  head, 

Also  her  steps  toward  the  silence  directed  she; 
To  the  mute,  to  the  arid  land, 

To  the  region  where  there  is  no  sea, 
Toward  the  country  where  the  stars  are  dead 
She  stretched   forth  her  hand. 

Ere  it  was  finished  and  done, 

—The   word   of  Queen    Istar  and   even   her   fierce 

word, 
"The  houses  of  darkness  stand  open,  I  haste,  I 

fly; 

With  a  triumph  to  the  dust  I  am  gone, 

Yea,  even  with  a  laughter,  with  a  cry ! 
I  spread  my  hands  as  a  bird. 
I  hasten,  I  run, 


135 

"Toward  the  darkness,  toward  the  dread  death, 
Toward  the  place  whose  silence  is  laid  as  a  covering 

thick, 
Toward   tin-   land    win  re   the   sun   and   the  moon 

shed  no  beam, 
When-   .s]«  ep   h-js   no  murmuring  breath; 

For  lo  I  am  sick  of  a  dream, 
I  loathe  it — O  I  am  sick! 
I  hunger  for  death ! 

"I  burn,  I  am  maddened,  I   go, 

Neither  any  more  do  I  cry,  my  wailing  is  dumb. 
Let  the  winds  of  the  dawn  sing  together  that  I 

may  dance ! 
That  I  may  enter  and  go 

Let  the  gates  of  the  darkness  advance. 
Let  the  gates  make  open,  I  come. 
I  order  it  so. 

"Make  open  your  bolts,  unbar! 

Mine  eyes  are  turned  toward  the  place  where  th«-j« 

is  no  sky, 
My  feet  are  set  toward  the  land  where  the  sun 

is  dead, 
Nor  st.-irlijrht,  nor  moonlight  are! 

Make  open,   fur   I    have  said. 
I  'nxeil.   for   10  it    i«,    I ." 
Saith  the  Queen  Istar! 


136 

To  the  first  gate  when  she  was  come, 

The  keeper  struck  off  her  crown,  the  sign  of  her 

head, 

Also  her  high  tiara  he  struck  with  his  hand, 
"Enter,  O  lady,  and  come, 

Of  Allat  it  is  the  command, — 
To  the  place  where  the  stars  are  dead 
Enter  and  come!" 

At  the  second  gate,  at  that  gate 

To  the  vaults  of  darkness,  the  palace  of  rain  and 

rust, 
The  rings  from  her  ears,  her  ear-rings,  he  made 

them  free. 
"Enter,  O  lady,  the  gate, 

Of  Allat  it  is  the  decree, 
The  gate  that  is  scattered  with  dust — 
Lo — this  is  the  gate !" 

At  the  third  gate,  and  at  the  third, 

The  necklace  bound  on  her  neck,  the  circlet  about, 

It  broke  at  his  hand,  also  it  fell  at  his  touch. 
"Obey,  O  lady,  the  word, 

The  order  of  Allat  is  such, 
In  the  city  that  hears  no  shout, 
Where  no  laughter  is  heard!" 

To  the  fourth  gate  when  she  had  pressed, 

The  cincture  of  her  breast,  her  breast-plate  laid  on 

her  breast, 

The  ornaments  thereof,  the  jewels,  at  his  touch 
they  fell. 


137 
'Make  bare,  O  lady,  thy  breast — 

Of  Allat    it   is   tlic   will, 
In  tlic  land  where  the  winds  have  rest, 
\Vhrrr  tin    waves  have  rest!" 

At  the  fifth  gate,  at  the  gate  of  rust, 

The  girdle  of  her  waist,  the  gems  of  it,  row  on  row, 
In  his  hands  he  took  them,  he  laid  them  across 

his  knees. 
"Enter  the  palace  of  dust — 

The  word  of  Allat  decrees, 
Go,  for  thou  wiliest,  go — 
Nay,  for  thou  must!" 

To  the  sixth  gate  when  she  was  led, 

Her  armlets,  her  anklets,  he  struck  from  her  body 

sweet, 
"To   the   land   whose   chiefs   are   as   birds,   whose 

kings  are  as  birds, 
Enter  O  lady!"  he  said, 

"They  are  written  of  Allat  the  words, 
'Let  the  night  be  a  snare  for  her  feet, 
A  shroud  for  her  head !'  " 

At  the  seventh  gate,  when  she  was  there, 

The  keeper  tore  from  her  body  the  covering  veil; 
As   a   blast  of  trumpets,   sudden   as   a  cymbal's 

clash, 
Her  body,  splendid  and  bare, 

Dawned  on  the  dark  as  a  flash, 
Her  body  stately  and  pale 
Dawned  suddenly  there! 


138 

"Enter,  O  lady,  at  length 

The  land  of  ruin,  the  country  of  trampled  wheat!" 
—With  a  shifting  sound  of  her  sandals  she  beat 

the  ground, 
She  burst  the  portal  at  length, 

She  moved  with  a  dancing  sound, 
With  a  shifting  sound  of  her  feet 
And  a  sound  of  strength. 

Istar  lifted  her  hands, 

She  bit  them,  she  beat  her  breast,  she  cried  with  a 

cry, 
"O  desolate  lands  whereof  Istar  hath  entered  tin. 

gate, 
O  dark  and  desolate  lands ! 

Her  body  is  choked  with  her  hate, 
With  her  hands  she  smites  you,  and  I 
With  the  hate  of  my  hands ! 

"O  desolate,  dark  and  dark, 

For  the  sake  of  love,  and  a  vain  love,  for  his  sake 
Do  I  seek  you,  the  hunger  of  love  makes  hurried 

my  breath ! 
My  body,  starving  and  stark, 

Yearns  toward  the  fullness  of  death, 
For  his   sake   also  I   make 
My  robes  of  the  dark. 

"Behold  you — and  lo — and  lo! 

Have  I  mourned  at  all,  have  I  made  any  wail  as 

I  went ! 

As  a  trodden  serpent,  a  back-blown  waste  of  the 
chaff, 


139 

I  turn  to  rr-plaijiir  you  so. 

I   dance    to  the  horror,  I  laugh — 
My  IK ck  with  a  laughter  is  bent. 
I  go,  I  go!" 

To  the  mute,  to  the  inexorable  place, 

Istar,  daughter  of  Sin,  inclined  her  head, 

She  wearied  of  a  bitter  love,  she  passed,  she  was 

gone. 
In  the  sad,  in  the  empty  place, 

With  the  darkness  that  is  blind  to  the  sun, 
In  the  country  where  the  stars  are  dead 
She  covered  her  face. 


TWILIGHT  AND  DAWN 

(TWILIGHT:) 
You  have  had  your  will. 

Now  let  me  rest 

Upon  your  breast. 
O  sweet,  be  still. 

(  DAWN:) 

Below  and  above  you 
I  kiss  you  and  kill  you. 
I   thrill  you  and  till  you! 
I    love  you,   I   love  you! 


140 

(TWILIGHT:) 
Ah  give  peace, 

Leave  me  at  length — 
Cease   from  your  strength, 
Sweetheart, — cease. 

(DAWN:) 
Yours,  and  not  mine 

Is  the  fault: — it  denies  me 
Your  beauty,  defies  me 
And  wakes  me  like  wine! 

(TWILIGHT:) 

I  am  yours, 

Yet  give  me  rest, — 
Joyous  your  breast, 

Mine  endures. 

(DAWN:) 

Nay, — but  once  more 
I  will  have  you  a  space 
To  drown  and  embrace, 
Clasp  and  adore! 

(TWILIGHT:) 
Alas  your  might 

Breaks  me  again, — 

O  the  pain ! 
O  the  delight! 


141 

(DAWN:) 
I  have  rushed,  I  have  run  to  you 

Sweet,  overthrown. 

O  my  darling,  my  own, 
What  have  I  done  to  you! 

(TWILIGHT:) 
Kiss  me,  close 

Mine  eyelids  fast. 
— Kill  me  at  last. 


THE  LAST  DAYS  OF  KING  DAVID 

u-    Kiii^r    I>a\id    was   old    and    strick.-n    in   years;    and 
th'-v  covered  him  with  clothes,  but  he  got  no  heat. 

Wherefore  his  ser\ants  said  unto  him,  Let  there  be 
sought  for  my  lord  the  king-  a  vomit:  virgin;  and  let  her 
.stand  U-forr  the  king,  and  let  her  cherish  him,  and  let  her 
lie  in  thy  hosom.  that  my  lord  the  king  may  get  heat. 

So  they  sought  for  a  fair  damsel  throughout  all  the 
e<>-i-t  of  Israel,  and  found  Abishag,  a  Shunamite,  and 
brought  her  to  tlie  king. 

And  the  dam-el  was  very  fair,  and  cherished  tin'  king 
and  ministered  unto  him:  but  the  king  knew  her  not.  .  .  . 

So  David  slept  with  his  fattors  and  was  buried  in  the 
city  of  David." 

1    Kings  1,  v.  1-5. 
!      1  Kings  2,  v.  10. 
WITHIN  the  chamber  of  state 
Fronting  the  sunset   from  the  city-gate, 
By  the  broidered  canopy 
Of  the  king's  carven  bed,  propped  wearily 


142 

In  his  chair,  on  cushions  blent 

Of  gorgeous  colors,  wrought  in  the  Orient 

By  delicate  hands  and  deft, 

Sat  David;  the  clear  furrows  care  had  cleft 

Along  his  forehead,  and  pain, 

And   the   plastic   stress   of   gigantic  joy, — each   vein, 

Kach  several  little  line 

Of  his  face  the  slanting  light  cut  clear  and  fine 

Like  a  chisel,  to  stand  out 

Against  the  background  of  twilight, — all  about 

His  lips  and  shaggy  brows 

Writ  deep,  like  words  of  glory.     So  in  his  house 

Sat  David,  and  toward  his  lands 

Looked  westward, — the  thin  majesty  of  his  hands 

On  the  arm-props  of  the  chair 

Reclined,  hung  lax.     Now  from  the  chamber  there, 

Where  the  king's  men  counselling  mused, 

Low  murmur  came  of  voices  and  sounds  confused, 

And  questioning:   for  the  king 

Long  days  was  failing,  and  within  him  the  spring 

Of  life  almost  run  dry, 

So  that  he  got  no  heat,  and  was  like  to  die, 

And  they  feared.     But  in  the  room 

Sat  David.     Deeper  around  him  closed  the  gloom 

And  the  outer  darkness,  save 

On  his   face  light  shone  like   hope.     At  each  side  a 

slave 

His  bosom  and  hands  in  vain 
Chafed,  to  restore  him  heat;  while  in  disdain, 
Austerely  from  his  eyes 
The     relinquishing     life     looked     forth.     The     vast 

emprize 


1 1.; 

Of  his  kingdoms  he  saw,  that  spread 

Around   him  beyond  all  eye-shot,  from  where  the  red 

I.a-t   lire  of  sunset  ran, 

Kven  eastward  whence  over  tlie  wide  waste  Syrian 

From  Babylonia  flowed 

The  waters  of  morning,  when  from  her  portals  strode 

The  young  sun  upward,  even 

Northward  past  Syria's  big  and  starry  heaven. 

To  his  borders  on  the  south 

And  the  Paranian  desert  dumb  with  drouth, 

Prankt   upon   Araby 

Balmv   with   odors,     his   cities   beside  the  sea, 

Tyre,  and  Sidon,  and  all, — 

Jerusalem  and  Damascus  held  in  thrall 

By  lordship  of  his  will, 

Stately    with    towers, — meadow,    valley    and    hill, — 

Blown   around    foaming  capes 

Galleys  bearing  him  peacocks,  gold  and  apes, — 

The  lands  with  all  their  flowers, 

Men.  birds   and   hearts  he  saw,  kingdoms  and  powers 

Teeming  with   fruitfulness, 

Bowed  down  to  the  earth  with  the  bounty  of  excess, — 

Flocks  on  a  million  plains 

Fed  fatly,  and   water  like  blood  within  the  veins 

Of  the  land,  to  quicken   her  meads, 

And   generation    that    generation    succeeds 

As  morning,  morning, — the  joy 

Of  God  in  the  hearts  of  men.  none  may  destroy — 

His  gift. — and  in  all  places, 

Scattered  abroad  like  flowers,  the  populous  faces 

That  at  his  coming  had  bowed 

Their  faces  together  as  flowers  in  a  crowd 


144 

At  the  wind's  footfall, — lo 

His,  David's  spirit,  his  deeds  here,  to  and  fro, 

All  up  and  down  the  land 

Sown,  and  his  songs,  as  by  a  liberal  hand, 

From  zone  to  ringing  zone 

Of  the  people's  heart  imperishably  sown 

For  seeds  forever !     Then 

On  him  so  musing  broke  the  voice  of  men 

From  the  outer  room;  for  now 

The  previous  plan  devised  by  the  courtiers,  how 

That  a  maiden  featly  formed, 

(To  lie  at  the  king's  heart  till  it  be  warmed 

Perchance,  in  the  old  way), 

From  the  kingdoms  should  be  chosen,  on  that  day 

Fulfillment  found,  but  some 

Held  it  a  foolish  thing  to  let  her  come 

Now  to  disturb  his  rest, — 

Yet  fair  she  was,  comely,  with  a  clear  breast, 

From  her  forehead  to  her  feet 

Filled  full  of  youth  and  bounty,  and  most  complete — 

That  hope  there  was  in  the  thing: 

So   wrangled   the   courtiers.     But   in    the    gloom   the 

king, 

Statuelike,  marble,  vast, 

Faced  toward  the  twilight;  before  his  soul  there  passed 
The  procession  of  his  days 

And  all  the  glory  of  life  in  her  myriad  ways 
Of  living, — love,   battle,  and   song, 
Kingship,  and   commune  with   God,  when   first   from 

the  throng 

His  locks  with  the  sacred  oil 
From  all  men  else  were  anointed,  till  drunk  toward  the 

spoil, 


115 

With  lissome  body  and  young, 

About  his  loins  the  shepherd's  loose  girdle-cloth  slung, 
With  swift  bent  beauty  he  hurled 
The   shivering  stone,   and   the   head   of   Goliath   was 

whirled 

Dustward  along  his  feet, — 
And  in  Saul's  tent,  when  with  liquid  glissandos  and 

sweet 

Soft  bubblings  of  sound,  to  his  harp 
The  boy's  head  leaned  and  his  hands  with  ecstasies 

sharp 

Of  quickening  beauty  had  lured 

The  sick  soul  backward  to  Beauty,  the  sorrow  endured 
When,  thankless,  Saul  on  him  turned, 
—That  day   in   the   cave, — O   how   the   soul   in    him 

burned 

With  the  old  love  Saulward !     When   Saul 
Seeking  his  life  with  the  sword,  soul,  body  and  all 
Into  his  hands  had  been  sent, — 

Hut  hurt  him  he  could  not,  nay,  with  a  cry  that  rent 
His  lips  longing  to  tell, 

He  fell  at  his  feet,  at  his  feet  he  bowed,  where  he  fell 
He  bowed  at  his  feet,  and  crept 
S.uilwnrd,  and  Saul  lifted  his  voice  up  and  wept, 
Knowing  at  last, — till  the  day 
When  over  Israel's  people  he  came  into  sway, 
With  sound  of  a  myriad  lips 
Crying,  "David,   David  !" — The  scrape  of  the  spear 

that  slips 

Through  the  plate,  as  the  body  careens 
Backward,  the  wail  sent  up  from  the  Philistines 
He  heard,  and  in  the  end 
The  sound  of  his  own  psalms  sent  up  to  blend 


146 

With  offerings  from  the  sod, 

And  from  a  thousand  tongues  his  joy,  to  God 

Go  up  like  fire!     Then 

From  the  ante-room  a  murmuring  again 

Reached  him,  for  now  was  brought 

The  damsel  into  the  castle,  and  they  thought 

To  bring  her  to  the  king's  room. 

But  in  his  chamber  silent,  in  the  gloom 

Sat  David,  as  in  a  dream 

Before  his  soul  he  felt  it  glitter  and  gleam, 

Like  water  the  morning  skims, 

Bathsheba's  body  washing  her  clear  limbs 

When  first  from  the  starlit  roof 

He  saw  her, — the  sin,  the  ecstasy,  the  reproof 

Of  the  little  first-born  slain 

At  the  hand  of  God,  and  later  the  thrilling  pain 

Of  Absalom  hung  by  the  hair, 

Beautiful,  proud,  and  dead ;  all  the  despair 

Not  to  be  stilled — ah,  never ! 

Yet  back  to  the  thought  of  God  turning  forever 

His  spirit  closed,  the  peace 

And  the  covenant  remembering:  great  release 

Fell  on  him,  memories  rife 

With  blessing  shot  new  splendors  into  life, 

That,  hastening  to  the  dead, 

Through  love  and  deeds,  in  life  at  least,  he  had  shed 

His  spirit  as  one  that  bleeds 

Into  new  veins,  through  Song  as  well  as  deeds 

Having  shed  his  life  to  the  full; 

Till  all  seemed  beneficent  and  beautiful, — 

Yea  pain  even  as  pleasure, — 

Life,  good  in  all,  to  the  last  sumptuous  measure 


117 

Drained.  from  the  smallest  things, 

Tin-  taste  of  the  golden  date,  the  wine  that  sings 

,J»>y's  paean  through  the  Mood. 

The  clash  of  spears,  the  battle's  raging  flood, 

And  the  arms  of  virgins  white 

About  the  heart,  up  to  the  vast  delight, 

The  exuberance  and  excess 

Of  Song  and  prayer  closing  with  holiness 

Into  God  above  it  all  — 

Life  —  Life!  —  Till  again  at  the  sovereign  call 

Of  the  ancient,  magic  word 

Fiercely  he  turned,  huge  longing  within   him  stirred 

Not  so  to  be  bereft 

Of  the  ch-ar  vigor,  nor  ever  so  to  be  left 

Banished.       Hut  through  the  calm 

Of  the  evening  within  the  city  arose  a  psalm, 

His  own,  on  many  a  voice 

nd   sound   of  instruments  that  rejoice 
Flooding  upon   him  swept. 
So  David  sat.  and  all  unseen  to  him.  crept 
The  spirit  of  Life  to  his  side 

Returning.-  the  little  damsel.  —  and  bowing  cried 
On  the  name  of  the  king,  and  bowed 
At  the  feet  of  the  king,  calling  his  name  aloud. 


And   Da\id  bade  her 

And  fair  she  was  and  comely  to  his  eyes, 

Flowerlike.  hravr  .and  young.     - 

And  shy  she  stood  in  the  gloom  with  a  bashful  tongue, 

From  the  country   far-  :-. 

Chosen   and    brought    for  a    sacrifice   to   this  day,  — 


its 

That  pity  filled  his  heart. 

And  he  took  her  to  him :  her  garments  she  did  apart 

And  sweet,  with  compassion  pressed 

Against  the  cold,  sad  weariness  of  his  breast 

The  bounty  of  her  own, 

Generously  unloosed  the  virgin  zone, — 

Yea,  pityingly  did  press 

The  quickening  vigor  of  her  loveliness 

Against  him,  and  laid  bare 

Each  little  grace  to  lure  him,  for  she  was  fair. 

But  David  knew  her  not. 

And  still  more  kindly  with  eager  body,  and  hot 

With  pity  of  love,  she  strove 

To  draw  him,  banished,  into  the  arms  of  Love 

And  the  old  Beauty,  drew 

His    heart    against    her    to    quicken    it    through    and 

through 

With  life,  above,  beneath, 

Warmed  with  her  own,  and  hid  the  face  of  Death 
With  her  sweet  face  awhile, 

To  force  him  to  love.     But  nothing  could  beguile 
Backward  the  ebbing  strength. 

So  all  night  long  she  cherished  him.     Then  at  length 
Toward  morning  the  creeping  fear 
And  chill  smote  David.     The  ardent  arms  and  dear 
Unloosing,  thus  he  said, 

"Thy  way  lies  lifeward,  but  mine  unto  the  dead, 
And  the  will  of  God  above, 
For  the  last  time  having  taken  leave  of  love 
And  the  old  way:  do  thou 

K<  turn  then,  dear,  to  life  and  leave  me  now." 
And  he  kissed  her.     And  he  felt 
Slip  from  his  neck  and  from  his  body  melt, 


149 

As  the  Spring-time  from  the  year, 

With  piercing  regret,  irrevocable  and  sheer, 

For  the  last  time  at  length 

Slip  tin-  dr.-ir  spirit  of  Life,  the  bounteous  strength. 

The  lore,  the  beauty  and  all, 

The  warmth  and  the  kindness,  fading  beyond  recall; 

As  the  summer  from  the  lands, 

Slip  lingeringly  the  breast,  the  lips,  the  hands, 

And  forsake  him  in  the  gloom 

Forever.     So  as  a  virgin  she  left  the  room, 

Slowly  returning.     There  woke 

A    babble    of   tongues    from   the    inner  court.     Then 

broke 

The  heart  of  the  twilight  in  twain 
On  the  bosom  of  morning!     Eastward  day  rose  again. 


SEA-VISIONS 

IN  his  strength,  and  in  his  sad  strength 

Out  of  his  wide  womb,  loud  and  free, 
On -m  strains  the  shore-girth's  length: 
Over  the  long,  vast  wallowing  of  the  sr.-i 
With  a  slow  sound  hurry  his  waves,  with  a  strong 

sound    to   inc. 
')  thalassa,  thalassa! 


150 

Not  with  a  shout,  not  with  a  short  shout, 

Born  of  fierce  life  for  a  space, 
Cries  the  sea,  but  turned  about 

As  when  the  sweeping  Spirit  bowed  on  his  face, 
The    warped   waves    lean    in   a   choked   race,   in   a 

curved  race. 
0  thalassa,  thalassa! 

And  his  thud,  and  his  dull  thud 
Beats  on  the  dun  sand,  beaten  floor 

With  the  full  force  of  his  flood, 

With  a  rustling,  shuffling  wash  on  the  waste  shore, 
In  a  sad  tone,  in  a  wide  tone  forevermore. 
0  thalassa,  thalassa! 

Where  the  dunes,  and  where  the  bleak  dunes 

Lean  to  the  sky  alone  the  west, 
Who  come  past  the  dull  lagoons, 

Where  the  quick  heat  shakes  on  the  dunes  and  has 

no  rest, 
In   their   loose   robes,   in   their   black   robes   thinly 

dressed ! 
0  thalassa,  thalassa! 

With  slow  tread,  and  with  slow  tread 

To  the  vague  sound  of  the  sea, 
To  the  deep  tomb  of  the  dead — 

O  where  the  last,  weak  waves  beat  at  you  wearily, 
WTith  no  sound,  and  with  no  sound  whom  bear  you 

to  me! 
()   fh(ilax.<m.  thalassa! 


151 

Roses  bright,  red  roses  bright 

Over  the  black  l>ier  richly  strown. 
Over  the  still  face  dead  and  white, 

Carried  in  measure  to  the  deep  sea's  measured  moan 
Hy  a  gray-head  and  a  young  son  of  his  own! 
O  thalassa,  thalassa! 

\\'hat  dumb  sound,  what  dumb  sound 
Struggles  back  by  the  wind-wet  shore  ! 

Faint,  sick  perfume  and  myrrh  surround 

The  heavy  body  borne  to  the  flat  sea's  roar, 
By  the  might  of  the  sea  in  a  great  sleep  evermore. 
O  thalassa,  thalassa! 

O  the  sweep,  and  calm,  large  sweep 

Of  waxen  brows,  O  the  sick  grave-bands  ! 
The  hunger  of  white  breathless  sleep 

Laid  on  the  thirsty  mouth,  O  the  carven  hands! 
All  swaying  with   their  short,  huddling  steps  over 

the  hot  sands  ! 
0  thala-ssa,  thalassa! 


In  tin    irleam,  and  in  the  bright  gleam 

Flashed  from  the  spray  of  the  ocean  flying, 
That    fact    went    by  me  like  a  dream; 

The   dear.   green    fields   of    wave    lapsing  and   dying 
Loomed  dark  behind,  with   waves  singing  and  sigh 

ing. 
O   thalaxxii.  thalassa! 


152 

With  the  beat,  and  with  the  strong  beat 

Of  their  steps  the  shingle  rang, 
With  the  fall  of  hurried  feet 

That  all  the  wet  beach  boomed  with  a  shuddering 

pang. 
And  as  they  went  the  gray-head  wept,  but  his  young 

son  sang. 
O  thalassa,  thalassa! 

As  they  passed,  and  as  they  passed 

Up  the  long,  dun  sea-dune  way, 
Beyond  the  bend  where  the  sea  moves  vast, 

The  huge,  flat,  wheedling  sea,  fawning  to  play, 
I  heard  his  singing  fade  with  the  sea-wind  away, 

away. 
0  thala-ssa,  thalassa! 

And  at  his  song  a  madness  fell 
On  me,  the  whole  sea's  force 
Entered  my  blood  with  sob  and  swell, 

And  the  splendor  of  life  and  death  on  their  mystic 

course, 
And  a  full  voice  spoke  out  of  the  tones  of  the  full 

sea's  force. 
0  thalassa,  thalassa! 


153 

"This  dumb  flesh  and  this  still  face, 

This  was  the  body  of  Christ  they  bore; 
Tin  v  have  torn  Him  down  from  the  sacred  place, 
And  the  writhing  God  they  have  torn  from  the  tem 
ple  door. 
The  body  of  a  man  we  bear  Him  by  the  sound  of 

the  flat  sea's  roar!" 
0  thalassa,  ihalassa! 

And  as  I  stood,  and  where  I  stood, 

Along  the  sky-mark  tense  and  fine 
The  full  sea  shuddered  in  her  flood 

And   flashed  to  the   shore  in   a  shower  of  singing 

brine, 

And  the  stark  waters  lifted  and  sank  in  a  long  line. 
()  thalassa,  thalassa! 

And  the  sea's  self,  and  the  sea's  whole 

And  the  whole  arching  of  the  sky 
Seemed  part  of  me  in  the  body  and  soul, 

And   the  irrevocable  murmur  of  the   Deep,  and   I 

shouted  on  high, 

And  lifted  my  hands  and  shouted,  "It  is  I,  it  is  I!" 
0  thalassa,  thalassa! 

Lift  your  head,  and  cease  your  moan, 

Leave  the  pure  flesh  to  flower  and  weed! 
Though  Christ  be  dead  and  the  old  Christ  gone, 
Our   bodies   shall   bear   a   new   Christ  to   the   new 

world's  need, 
With   in-w  strong  words  and  new  sad  wounds  that 

bleed. 
0  thalassa,  thalassa! 


154 

Laugh — look  up,  not  a  God,  but  a  man 

Now,  and  part  of  the  dust  and  the  doom: 
What  is  there  base  since  the  world  began! 

Out  of  the  dust  comes  Christ  and  the  soul  from  the 

womb, 
And  the  dust  is  splendid,  and  earth,  and  death,  and 

the  tomb! 
0  thalassa,  thalassa! 

O  from  the  sod,  and  glad  from  the  sod 

Let  us  reach  up  from  the  fears  that  be, 
With  body  and  spirit,  a  god  to  God, 

Knowing  that  all  things,  body  and  spirit,  are  holy 

and  free, 
And  Christ  in  the  dust  and  the  grass,  and  the  waves 

of  the  sea! 
0  thalassa,  thalassa! 


THE  MOTHER 

THERE  was  a  trampling  of  horses  from  Calvary 

Where  the  armed  Romans  rode  from  the  mountain 
side  ; 
Yet  riding  they  dreamed  of  the  soul  that  could  rise 

free 
Out  of  the  bruised  breast  and  the  arms  nailed  wide. 

There  was  a  trampling  of  horses  from  Calvary, 
And  the  long  spears  glittered   into  tin-  night; 

Yet  riding  they  dreamed  of  the  will  that  dared  to  be, 
\\  IK  n  the  head  fell  and  the  heavens  were  rent  with 
light. 


155 

Ti.e  ryi  s  that  closed  over  sleep  like  folded  wings 
And  the  sad  mouth  that  kissed  death  with  the  cry 

"Father,   forgive  them — ,"  silently  these  things 
They  remembered,  riding  down  from  Calvary. 

AIM!  Joseph,  wlu-n  the  sick  body  was  lowered  slowly, 
Folded  it  in  a  white  cloth  without  seam, 

The  indomitable  brow,  inflexible  and  holy, 

And  the  sad  breast  that  held  the  immortal  dream, 

And   the   feet  that  could  not  walk,  and  the   pierced 

hand, 
And   the   arms   that  held  the  whole  world  in  their 

embrace ; 

But  Mary,  beside  the  cross-tree,  could  not  understand, 
Looking  upon  the  tired,  human  face. 


VI 
LOVE  SONGS 


At  the  sharp,  sweet  pang  of  your  lips, 
At  the  touching  of  Beauty's  knife, 

My  song  from  my  body  slips, 
Like  a  soul  released  from  life. 


159 
VICTORY 

.  r\<  n   :is   hr  conquers  US, 

Through  lashes  that  tremble  for  starry  tears, — 
And  the  dear  beauty  over  us 

Laughs,  as  the  lovely  moment  nears. 

For  all  of  ourselves  that  we  give  away 
In  the  reckless  rapture  of  sweet  unrest, 

For  every  flowrr  of  life  we  shed 

As  a  sacrifice  at  the  immortal  breast, 

For  every  joy  he  deflowers  us  of 

In  the  ecstasy  and  most  bitter  bliss, 
And  rvrry  cry  that  is  wrung  from  us, 

Confessing  us  still  more  wholly  his ; 

O  wholly  his,  and  more  and  more, 

His  in  the  end,  and  his  alone — 
()  and  to  frrl  the  whole,  sweet  soul 

Bared  to  his  beauty  and  overthrown ! 

The  pitiless  and  the  insatiate  lips, 

And  thr  kind  hrart  that  bends  from  above, 
And  thr  glad  eyes  through  brimming  tears 
for  rxultant  love. 


160 

FLOWERING 

THE  dear  and  beloved  beauty, 
Persuasive  as  the  Spring's, 

Lures  life  from  the  lips  of  Life, 
Song  from  the  heart  that  sings, 

To  be  wasted  across  her  being: 
From  the  deep  heart  she  steals 

Life  to  the  source  of  Life — 
Song  at  her  bosom  reels. 

As  roses  in  a   garden 

Lured  by  the  laughing  South, 

Life,  long  numb  at  the  heart, 

And  Song,  long  dumb  at  the  mouth, 

Burst,  and  break  into  blossom, 
And  quicken  with  sweet  unrest, 

Are  born  and  shed  and  wasted 
At  the  beloved  breast. 


PRAYER 

O  TAKE  me  where  you  are — 
Open,  make  open  wide! 

Dear,  draw  the  very  veils 
Of  your  inmost  life  aside ! 


161 

Take  me  to  the  most  secret 
Dim  altar  of  your  breast, 

There  where  your  very  self  is, 
Shut  out  from  all  the  rest. 

Drown  out  all  other  faces, 

Dear,  with  your  only  face, — 
All  other  selves  with  your  self 

There  in  that  quiet  place, 

There  where  your  very  soul  is, 

Th<  re  where  all  longings  cease — . 

Open,  and  fold  my  sorrow 
Into  your  beauty's  peace! 


LOVE  AND  PAIN 

soft  veil  by  veil  dividing. 
Now  soft  snow  by  snow  divides 
Falling  softly,  and  leaves  naked 
The  Spring's  beauty,  like  a  bride's. 

Clear  and  cold  her  wrt  limbs  sparkle 

Through  tin-  woodland  drenehed  in  dew 

And  warm  showers:  -   through  the  window 
Windy  buds  and  boughs  shine  through. 

And  a  bird-note  from  the  tree-tops, 
Through  the  bn-ast  here  in  the  dawn 

Strikes,   like   a  bright   blade  of  beauty 
Driven,    like    a    blade    withdrawn. 


162 

Ah  sweet,  now  my  sleepless  sorrow 

Moves  through  darkness  into  day, 
Crush  with  your  sweet  self  around  me 

The  old  self  in  me  away ! 

Not  with  words,  ah  not  words  only, 
Hush  the  pain  that  in  me  lives, — 

But  with  the  immortal  kindness 
Life  to  life  forever  gives ! 

So  amid  the  greatest  sadness 
Of  my  sorrow,  shall  I  feel, 

Through  blind  tears,  the  lovely  gladness 
'Round  about  my  spirit  steal. 

Till  my  pain  lies  bared  completely 
To  your  beauty,  all  my  pain 

Bared  completely,  as  the  woodland 
To  the  kind  and  healing  rain. 


TO  THE  BELOVED 


Mo  HE  sweet  than  another's  pity, 
Dear,  from  your  lips  is  pain. 

Ah  not  for  the  touch  of  pity 
The  heart  of  love  is  fain! 

Pity  is  old  and  feeble, 

Pity  has  a  mournful  tongue — j 
But  O  delight  is  cruel, 

Delight  is  well  and  young! 


163 

B<  It.  r  than  another's   pity 

Drowsing  the  heart  like  dew, 
Pain   and   the   tumult  of  pain  is, 

So  that  it  come  from  you. 

O  better  than  all  the  gladness 

Of  the  world   from  fast  to  west, 
One  starlit  hour  of  pain  is 

And  weariness  at  your  breast ! 

At   the  wild,  sweet  lust  of  your  bosom, 

Where  the  young  blood  laughs  and  sings, 

Panting    witli    dear    desire, 
And  pitiless  as  the  Spring's. 


LONGING 

As  a  storm  with  shower  and   lightning 
That   sweeps   the  oe<  an   through, 

I   would  that    I   might  hurry 
Now,  to  you,  to  you  ! 

He  pours   his   radiant   fire 

From  tin-   ecstasy  of   his   face, 

With  tears  and   fiery  laughter 
He  bows  to  her  embrace. 

Tin-  deep,  immaculate  bosom. 

Silent,  and  fierce,  and   proud, 
In  the  most   holy  gladm  ss 

Breaks,  and   sobs  aloud. 


164 

O  but  to  hurry  now 

To  you,  at  length,  at  length! 
Cover  you  with  my  love, 

And  fill  you  with  my  strength, 

Touch  hands  and  lips  and  fingers 
In  longing  pure  and  white, 

And  pour  my  spirit  through  you 
In  the  radiance  of  delight ! 


LOVE  AND  THE  THOUGHT  OF  DEATH 

SPRINGTIME  is  in  the  world, 

Her  warm  airs  fill  the  gloom. 
A  single  ray  of  light 

Slips  through  the  darkened  room. 

Alas  how  oft  I  feared 

To  render  up  my  breath, 
Ere  I  had  tasted  love, 

Into  the  waste  of  death. 

But  now  even  to  my  heart 

Her  pitying  heart  descends, 
Across  my  very  breast 

The  sacred  bounty  bends, 

And  the  saving  spirit  of  Life, 

Your  radiant  womanhood : — 
Love  lies  dumb  and  baffled 

For  wordless  gratitude. 


165 
Love  laughs  through  blinded  lashes, 

As  dimly  through  his  tear-,. 
At  last,  at  last,  at  last, 

The  reverent  bounty  nears ! 

Let  me  lean  up  my  thirst, 

Here  in  the  Spring,  and  slake 
Life  at  the  source  of  life! — 

Lean  up  my  lips  that  ache  ! 

O  all  your  woman's  beauty. 

Bowed  down  like  a  laden  bough 
Heavy   with    burden    of   bountv. 

Has  drooped  across  me  now ! 

O  the  whole  spirit  of  Springtime 

Has  caught  me  in  embrace, 
April  and  April's  kindness 

Have  bowed  across  my  face! 

O  the  world  is  full  of  bounty 

And  the  Springtime's  starry  breath! 

Love  has  conquered  Life, 

And  Life  has  conquered  Death  ! 


THE  TIMPLE  OF  THE  SOUL 

YOUR  body  is  like  a  cathedral. 
Whose  stately  arches  and  strong 

Were   raised   to  triumphant  miiMe 
And  the  rhythm  of  reverent  song. 


166 

In  her  secret  and  shady  places, 

The  curves  of  her  shadow  clings, 
Like  incense  under  dim  arches, 

An  odor  wild  as  the  Spring's, 

A  scent,  as  of  sunburnt  islands, 

O'er  the  waters  wafted  afar. 
Through  the  labyrinth  of  your  bosom 

Where  the  somber  silences  are, 

Through  the  hush,  through  the  choir  of  your  bosom, 

Like  an  organ's  I  hear  it  roll, 
In  the  thunderous  anger  of  beauty, 

The  pulse  of  the  wrath  of  your  soul. 

The  arch  of  your  body's  endurance, 

The  span  of  your  beauty's  strength 
Is  a  door  to  the  mystery  dread: 

Your  body's  rhythmical  length, 


With  murmurous  walls  all  surrounded, 
Is  the  hushed  and  the  holy  abode 

Of  a  flame  on  the  altars  eternal, 
A  flash  of  the  beauty  of  God ! 


COMPLETION 

WIIKN  in  the  arms  of  the  beloved  I  lie 

The  whole  world  breaks  into  one  flower  of  Spring, 
Buds  burst,  stars  shine,  and  to  the  nightingales 

Around  us,  all  the  sleepless  woodlands  ring. 


167 
.'«>\    moves  to  ecstasy  with  every  pulse 

And  Love  toward   Loveliness  with  every  breath; 
Life  shines  completed,  and  the  veil  of  fear 

Falls  from  the  solemn  and  kind  face  of  Death. 


ECHOES 

I  LEAN  at  the  breast  beloved 
And  hear,  as  in  the  shell, 

Tin-  inarticulate  moan, 

Where  God  is  murmuring  still, 

Some  echo  of  the  far  ocean, 
Fading  with  every  breath, — 

The  moan  of  the  blood  beloved 
Pouring  on  toward  death. 


REPOSSESSION 

ALIEN  and  remote  the  whole  day  long 

You  seem  to  me,  and  all  the  crowded  day 

The  outer  selves  and  faces  from  my  heart 

Crowd  the  sweet  self  and  face  of  you  away. 

Till  the  long  twilight  deepens  into  dusk 

And    the   irny   evening  mines,  then  am  I  yours, 

Then  in  my  heart  the  blood-beat  of  your  heart 

Through  gates  of  memory  summons  me  and  lures. 


168 

Then  when  the  myriad  outer  faces  fade, 

The  stress  and  turmoil  of  the  long  day  passed, 
Breathless,  and  face  to  face  amid  the  dark, — 

0  then  amid  the  silences  at  last, 

When  the  dim  room  is  darkened,  and  the  world 
Fades  with  the  barring  of  the  silent  door, 

All  other  selves  forever  you  crush  out, 

Sweet,  with  yourself  around  me  evermore! 

Ah  then  amid  the  darkness  and  the  peace 

Around  us,  veiled,  inviolate  and  vast, 
Even  by  your  touch,  even  by  your  trembling,  sweet, 

1  know  your  very  self  again  at  last ! 


LIFE  PERSUASIVE 

AH  sweet,  from  my  lips  you  steal 

The  very  life  away, — 
To  be  shed  on  the  lips  of  the  Springtime 

That  here  at  my  own  to-day 

Hang  close  and  tug  insistent: 

Ever  your  beauty  lures 
The  ardent  life  between  us 

To  pass  from  my  breast  to  yours. 

O  the  sweet,  the  insistent  Springtime 

That  hangs  here  at  my  heart, 
Drinking  the  very  life 

With  thirsty  lips  apart! 


169 
The  urgent,  embodied  Springtime 

That  lures  my  love  to  live, 
That  hangs  here  at  my  heart 

Whispering,  "Give — Give  !" 


THE  REFUGE 

DEAR,  the  deft  Nature  and  the  Love  that  wrought  thee 
Fitted  thy  breast  with  kindness  to  my  breast, 

And  the  compassionate  Tenderness  that  thought  thee 
Made  thee  a  refuge  for  me  and  a  rest. 

Ah  'mid  the  world's  innumerable  faces 
And  million  arms  flung  open  to  embrace, 

I  fly  to  thee;  amid  a  myriad  places 
I  seek  thee  only  and  thine  only  face! 

For  from  myself  thy  beauty  liberates  me, 
And  from  all  other  selves,  set  free  and  lost 

In  the  one  being  that  still  recreates  me 
And  mixes  me  with  all  I  love  the  most. 

Thou  art  the  one,  sweet  loveliness  forcvrr 

Farthest  from  all  that  I  must  ever  be 
And  still  have  been:  wherefore  my  spirit  ever 

Hastens  with  love  and  longing  on  to  thee. 

The  unreachable  Paradise  beyond  my  sorrow, 
Toward  which  my  lonely  longing  ever  moves, 

The-  light  that  lures  me  on  beyond  To-morrow, 
All  that  my  spirit  labors  for  and  loves ! 


170 

PARTING  IN  SPRING 


I 


WE  shall  not  live  to  see  the  light  of  June 

Together,  You  and  I, 
Ere  the  young  moon,  ere  the  young  thrush's  tune, 

Our  love  must  die. 

Each  breath  we  haste 

But  to  one  hour  with  hearts  and  lips  that  throb, 
Then — and  the  waste 

Widens  between  our  bosoms  with  a  sob. 

With  the  glad  Spring 

All  glad  lives  flower  toward  the  sweet  life  to  come, 
Flower  and  sing: 

Only  your  heart  here  at  my  heart  is  dumb. 

With  the  glad  Spring 

All  sweet  lives  blossom  and  burst  and  flower  IK  u- 

blown, 
Reflower  and  sing 

And  shed  new  hope,  except  our  love  alone. 

Kvrn  the  kind  stars  of  this  month  that  see 

Our  love  laid  breast  to  breast — 
O  sweet,  shall  see  your  breast  laid  far  from  me, 

As  the  East  from  the  West! 


171 
II 

Now  l>r< -aks  tin   first  hud  on  the  bending  spray, 

Hut   Thou  and    I   must  part. 
Now  April  leans  with  trembling  lips  at  May, 

Thy    heart,   sweet,   at    my    heart. 
Now  dings  the  swallow  to  the  hawthorne  tree, 
But  I  must  go  from  Thee. 

Now  pours  the  young  tulip  forth  her  odorous  love 

To  the  nightingale  along, 
Now  answers  the  nightingale  from  the  boughs  above 

With  running  song: 

Ere  April's  self  has  flowed  into  swrrt  May 
I  shall  be  far  away. 

Now  all  sweet  flowers  quicken  into  birtli 

At  the  bosom  kind  and  bright 
Ot'  the  dear  Spring,  now  all  things  in  the  earth 

Mingle  with  one  delight 

And  waken  to  one  hope,  but  Tliou  and  I, — 
Only  our  love  must  die  ! 

Spring  rings-  and  all   the  woodlands  east  and  west 

Ring   with    a    million   songs, 
Life  hastens  to  the  In-loved   from  the  loving  breast, 

To  the  breast  where  life  In-longs  : 
l-'.re  Spring  has  ceased  our  love  must  cease  to 
Hut    wlnt    of    Thee  and    Mr  I 


172 

LONGING  AND  PAIN 

THE  call  of  a  bird  from  the  woodland — 
In  my  body  a  slow,  sweet  pain, — 

O  my  body  is  drenched  and  filled  with  you 
As  the  earth  with  the  April  rain! 

To  the  call  of  the  bird  in  the  woodland 
Answers  a  voice  in  my  heart, — 

Up  through  my  aching  pulses 
Your  pulses  tremble  and  start. 

O  would  I  were  yours  again  wholly, 

Flooded  again  and  again 
With  yourself,  that  am  grown  already 

So  full  of  that  slow,  sweet  pain ! 

O  would  I  were  yours  again  wholly, 

And  all  my  sorrow  again 
Lay  bared,  my  pain  to  your  beauty, 

As  the  earth  to  the  April  rain ! 


SLEEPLESS  NIGHT 

NIGHTLONG  full  of  bitter  longing 
Slumberless  I  tossed  and  fain, 

But  the  thought  of  you  at  morning 
Soothed  away  the  touch  of  pain. 


173 
The  warm  April  rain  was  falling, 

The  first  bird-notes  woke  again, — 
And  the  thought  of  you  came  falling 

Softly  on  my  heart  like  rain. 

Till  the  rain  kissed  sleep  aslumber, 
Till  sleep  kissed  away  my  pain, — 

And  I  dreamed  that  I  was  lying 
At  your  very  breast  again. 


LOVE'S  PRAYER 

GIVE  me  yourself,  dear; 

Not  the  sweet  hands, 
Eyes,  or  lips  only 

Loving  demands: 

Not  the  mere  outward, 
Alien  and  lonely — 

Ah  not  the  hands, 

The  dear  beauty  only  ! 

I  thirst,  I  thirst! 

Bare  me  your  soul ; 
Let  the  sweet  waves  of  it 

Crowd  to  me,  roll 

In  on  my  spirit 

To  flood  and  enfold: 
Be  kind,  dear,  be  kind, — 

Nothing  withhold ! 


174 


Give  me  yourself, 
The  inmost,  the  best 

One  soul  of  all  souls, 

Hid  deep  in  your  breast! 


SPRING-SORROW 

How  often  have  I  thrilled  you 
With  joy  and  the  pulse  thereof! 

Thrilled  you  and  filled  you  all  through, 
Sweet,  with  my  living  love ! 

How  often  have  I  felt  you 
Tremble  to  my  pulses,  sweet, 

Flutter  all  through  and  tremble 

From  the  forehead  even  to  the  feet ! 

Ah  Spring  returns  and  the  flowers, 
Springtime  and  flowers  and  rain, — 

But  one  sweet  moment  forever 
Returns,  ah  never  again ! 


WEARINESS  IN  SPRING 

ALL  love-songs  and  the  inner  sense 

Of  every  song  and  singing  word 
Are  consummated  in  the  cry 
Of  any  woodland  bird. 


Alas  for  the  blind  pain  of  speech 

That  struggles  toward  the  starry  heights, 

Language  in  labor,  and  the  soul 
That  would  grasp  the  Infinite's! 

Alas  for  the  blind  pain  of  speech 
And  all  the  strife  to  comprehend! 

The  cry  of  any  woodland  bird 
Has  said  it  all  in  the  end. 


MOMENTS 

THE  wind 

Lkl  down  upon  the  long,  swert.  In-riving  waste 
That  sobs  beneath  his  beauty,  all  the  sea 
Trrmblrs  like  a  young  virgin  about  to  love— 
A  tender  silence   tills  thr  whole   world  around: 
So  once  have  I   felt  you   trrmble     .... 


LOVE  I!J  THE  RAIN 

ONCE  my  heart  to  your  heart,  dear. 

I. -tv  bared,  to  your  brauty  my  pain, 
Au<l  litV  to  thr  life  beside  it, 

And  both  to  the  April  rain. 

The.  warm,  thr  white  rain  was  falling 
Across  us.  and  swiftly  our  tears 

Han   down   with   thr   rain,  and   mingled, 
T.rr  thr  lonjr  thirsty  years. 


176 

O  anguish  and  ecstasy  blended,  — 
Tears  and  the  rain  and  delight 

Mingled,  and  pain  with  beauty, 
And  life  with  life  in  the  night, 

For  the  last  time  forever 

'Ere  the  long,  thirsty  years; — 

O  eagerly  pain  and  beauty 

Mingled  with  laughter  and  tears ! 

Ah  for  that  one  fleet  moment, 
That  perfect  moment  again 

Of  tears  and  love  and  the  Springtime, 
Ecstasy,  darkness  and  rain ! 


REMEMBRANCE 

THE  twilight  falls. 

I  hear  the  children  singing.     A  robin  calls 
Through  the  fast-fading  twilight,  and  the  sky 
Deepens  to  ardent  loveliness.     But  I 
Dream  of  the  look  of  the  beloved  face 
Seen  in  the  clasp  of  a  last,  long  embrace 
Once,  in  a  far-off  land,  'mid  thunder's  sound 
And   ecstasy   of  the   nightingales   around 
Among  the  dripping  boughs,  and  lightnings  bright 
Between  the  twilight  and  the  dawning  light, 
When  all  about  the  silence  of  our  pain 
Fell  the  soft  kindness  of  the  soothing  rain; 


177 

Seen    once    through    swift    and    blinding    tears    from 

above, 

The  face  beloved  in  the  moment  of  love, 
And  breast  like  a  moonlit  sea  without  a  breath, 
When-  the  rapture  of  love  had  set  the  peace  of  death! 


THE  GREAT  WISH 

To  love  you  and  die,  sweet,  that  were  the  best! 
To  drink  of  you  once  nor  'waken  again 
To  aught  unkinder,  but  happily  slain, — 
N<>  more  longing  and  no  more  pain, 
With   love  at  the  fullest  and  life  at  the  best, 
To  sink  into  rest, 

To  sink  into  sleep  from  the  heaven  of  your  breast, — 
That  were  the  best ! 

Having    lived,    having    loved,    to    the    full    of    life's 

power, 

Having  had  your  beauty  one  whole  sweet  hour, 
With  no  space  between  of  unlove-lit T  breath, 
From  the  rapture  of  love  to  the  rapture  of  death 
To  be   hurlrd.      from   your  breast,   from  your  breast 

bare  and  bright 

Sobbing  rrrklrss  along  in  the  rage  of  delight, 
At  your   breast,  at  your  breast,  to  the  consummate 

night 

To  sink   through  the   love-sleep,  and   ebb  into  rest; 
That  were  the  best! 


178 

Ah  to  sink  from  the  noon-tide  of  love,  when  the  noon 

Lies  heavy  on  life,  and  the  earth  in  the  swoon 

Of  the   bride-sleep   is   hushed,   when  the   shadowless 

hour 
Broods   perfect  and   prone   on   the   world,   and   each 

flower 

To  the  core  with  perfection's   fulfillment  is  thrilled, 
And  the  birds  in  the  woodland  for  rapture  are  stilled, 
— Longing  and  beauty  and  sorrow  fulfilled — 
O  drunkenly,  wearily,  blessedly  slain ! 
Yours  at  last,  yours  at  last,  to  sink  into  rest, 
Yours  at  last,  yours  at  last,  from  the  heaven  of  your 

breast 

To  sink  into  rest, — 
No  more  longing  and  no  more  pain, 
And  no  more  pain ! 


GENTLE  HANDS 

OUTSIDE  I  hear  upon  the  window-pane, 

Half  through  my  sleep,  the  soft  touch  of  the  rain 

Pleadingly,  like  the  touch  of  gentle  hands 

From  far  away.     O  on  the  borderlands, 

Starry  and  dim,  'ere  the  first  quiet  breatli 

Of  sleep,  as  on  the  dim  borderlands  of  death, 

The  thought  of  the  first  beloved  returns  again, — 

Of  the  dear  hands,  the  hands  that  first  held  up 

Even  to  our  lips  the  sacrificial  cup, 

Bounteous    and    brave,    the    dear,    the    compassionate 

hands! 
I  hear  soft  hands  upon  the  window-pane. 


179 

I  hear  the  soft  sound  of  the  rushing  rain. 
I  sec  them  there,  the  quiet,  the  folded  hands, 
In  the  last  sleep  long  hushed  and  laid  away; 
I.et  me  kneel  down  beside  you  hero  to  pray  ! 
Let  mr  kiss  off*  your  hitter  stain  of  blood 
Here,  with  the  hot  tears  of  my  gratitude! 

0  bounteous  hands!  O  dear,  first  hands  that  gave 
The  immortal  kindness,  compassionate  and   brave. 
Dear  hands,  whose  memory  nothing  may  destroy 
Felt  ever  around  in  the  Springtime  of  our  joy! 
Dear,  generous  hands,  let  me  kneel  down  and  weep ! 

1  feel  soft  hands  come  pleading  through  my  sleep. 


SONCi 

ALAS  you  were  my  youth,  my  youth! — 

My   love  ran  on  to  greet  you. 
Sweet,  at  the  fall  of  your  luring  feet — 

My  life  ran  on  to  meet  you. 

And  when,  with  your  head  at  my  heart,  you  shed 

Wild  tears   for  your  only   lover, 
Wild   t<  ars  as    for  one  already  dead. 

And  kissed  me  over  and  over, 

0  sweet,  and  hung  at  my  heart  and  clung, 
For  agony,  so  to  grieve  me ! 

1  knew  it  was  my  youth,  my  vouth. 

Was  trying  then   to  leave  me. 


180 

I  knew  it  was  my  youth,  my  youth, 

And  O  when  you  departed 
My  youth  and  I  had  said  good-bye, 

And  I  was  broken-hearted ! 


DEFIANCE 

Now  let  Death  come  when  he  will — 

At  the  beloved  breast 
I  have  leaned,  I  have  taken  my  fill 

Of  the  one  thing  the  best. 

Into  the  pitiless  lands 

Still  shall  I  bear  with  me 

Some  touch  of  the  lips,  the  hands, — 
That  kindest  memory. 


THE  UNIVERSE  AND  THE  BELOVfeD 

IT  is  your  love  and  not  the  radiant  light 
That  fills  the  lonely  and  the  sunset  lands, 

When  evening  o'er  the  broad  and  billowing  waste 
Hallows  the  silences  with  hovering  hands. 

When  westward  o'er  worn  sunset's  wratli  the  Void 
Widens  with  luminous  rapture  calm  and  bright, 

O  most  serene  and  liberating  soul, 

Your  spirit  widens  there  with  vast  delight ! 


Ill  the  huge  agony  of  the  sunset's  wast. 

Your  burning  1()V,    is  sacrificed  and  slain, 
Your  Ix-ing  rearises  in  the  west, 

Crowning  with  starry  peace  the  close  of  pain. 


as  the  sunrise  from  his  single  self 
I  «  M  the  last  star,  lost  in  her  light  above, 
So  from  myself  you  liberate  mys.  If 

Lost  in  the  widening  daylight  of  your  love. 

I  feel  you  and  I  breathe  you  and  I  live 

U  hen  in  the  winnowed  east  the  stars  die  out: 

In  the  augiist  magnificence  of  noon 

Your  golden  glory  folds  me  'round  about. 

Where  suns  arc  and  the  flaming  thrones  of  life, 

There  is  your  habitation  and  abode, 
In  the  unwearied  love  that  swavs  the  world. 

Among  the  stars,  and  at  the  heart  of  God. 

0  and  where  the  huge  passion  of  the  storm 

Lifts,  with  excited  laughter  of  delight, 
I.  ashed  lightnings:  there  your  radiant   passion  reigns, 
And  in  the  orbits  of  the   Infinite! 

How  shall    I    fly  you,  w!,,  re   shall    I    be   fed? 
Still  follows  the  one  thought  of  you  along, 

1  ;J  -ishes   lik.    lightning  through   my  singing  soul 

And  shatters  all  the  thunders  of  my  Song. 


182 

EXALTATION 


Song  here  closes  with  worn  longing 
In  her  thought  from  whose  embrace 

First,  broke  all  his  fiery  ardors 
And  the  circuits  of  his  race. 

To  the  breast  where  he  has  lavished 

All  his  beauty  in  the  past, 
Love  with  ecstasy  surrenders 

All  his  life  again  at  last. 

O  the  one  face  most  beloved 
Aureoled  'mid  a  myriad  faces, 

The  one  breast  that  bears  the  secret 
'Mid  Creation's  myriad  races! 

Known  by  heart  the  one  dear  body  ! 

The  dear  lips,  well  worn,  well  known ! 
Faithful  to  one  life  forever, 

Loyal  to  one  soul  alone, 

Still  Love  bears  upon  his  bosom 

Toward  the  stars  with  every  breath, 

The  dear  burden  that  he  lovrs  so. 
His  at  last   in  life  and  death; 

Under  sun  and  moon  and  starlight 

Lifting  upward  sleeplessly, 
Lapsing  in  long  lines  of  beauty, 

Like  the  bosom  of  the  sea: 


183 
With  exhaustion  most  exalted 

And  new  longing  newly  born, 
With  seraphic  pain  triumphant 

And  high  weariness  outworn. 


DEFEATED  SONG 

ALAS,  at  last  Song's  wandering  wing-ways  reach 

The  Beauty  that  thrones  triumphant  beyond  speech, 

The  holiest  Beauty!     In  the  most  hallowed  place 

Forevennon    he  hides  his  holy  face, 

'Mid  starriest  heaven  lost  astray  afar, 

And  breathless  for  awe  of  Beauty,  like  a  star. 


VII 
IBM  A 


O  lovely  fallen  angel 

Out  of  the  hcarc n   of  love! 

That  seeks  in  vain  to  recapture 
Her  place  in  heaven  above. 

0  lovely  fallen  angel! 

O  beautiful  lost  star! 
Wandering  now  and  errant 

In  the  u'ide  wastes  afar. 

Con  1<I  I  hut  replace  you 
In   highest  heaven  above, 

Could  I  only   heal  you 
With    tny  living  love, 

I  would  fold  you,  as  the  morning 
Her  star,  when   night  is  passed,- 

Into   the   hushed  longing 
Of  my  lore  at  last! 


187 
A  PORTRAIT 

In  MA  has  sweet  eyes  and  young, 

A  strange  and  maiden  air, 
Laughter  lies  upon  her  lips 

And  sunlight  on  her  hair. 

Here  in  her  sweet,  slight  body  once 

An  angrl  had  his  home 
Some  years  ago,  but  now,  alas, 

His  feet  are  forced  to  roam. 

The  angel  of  herself  he  was 

And  bore  her  very  name — 
Our  day  into  the  temple  broke 

Together,  Lust  and  Shame. 

At  the  strange  sound  of  alien  tongues 

He  hid  his  face  and  fled, 
But  still  her  Ixxly  moves  about 

As  though  she  were  not  dead. 

And  set-king  still  shr  knows  not  what 

She  wanders  like  a  ghost, 
Half-gay,  half-sad:  she  hardly  knows 

It    is    hrrsrlf   slir    lost. 

Yet  it'  OIK    knocking  at  her  heart 

Should  serk  to  rntrr  iii, 
Nothing  within  it  will  he  find 
Kxerpt   tin-   worm   within. 


188 

And  if  Love  ever  now  should  come 

To  knock  upon  the  door, 
Out  of  the  hollow  tomb  no  love 

Makes  answer  evermore. 

Strange  is  it  sometimes  still  to  hear 
'Mid  the  false  tongues  about, 

With  simple  beauty  and  austere 
Her  native  self  speak  out. 

Like  the  grave  voice  of  one  long  dead 

It  falls  upon  the  ear 
And  vanishes,  and  then  we  know 

She  is  no  longer  here. 

Irma  has  sweet  eyes  and  young, 
A  strange  and  maiden  air, 

Laughter  lies  upon  her  lips 
And  sunlight  on  her  hair. 


A  FALLEN  ANGEL 

THROUGH  the  cold  brilliance  of  the  crowded  street 

One  night-time  passing,  on  my  arm  I  felt 

The  touch  of  one  like  Memory  come  from  behind, 

And  a  beloved  voice  that  greeted  me 

\Vith  the  old  name:  pausing,  I  turned  about. 


189 

Strange  was  the  face,  and  tragical  the  - 

That  met  me,  tin-  worn  smile  upon  the  lips. 

The  sorrowful,  guy  clothes,  the  veiled,  small  form, — 

A  ghost,  a  horror,  it  stood  beside  me  there, 

Sinister,  harsh;  hardly  my  heart  had  guessed, 

Save  for  that  same,  familiar  joke  of  yours. 

Light  of  my  youth,  alas  and  was  it  you! — 
Not  glad  the  laughter  that  you  gave  me  then. 

That  all  that  I  had  longed  for  ever  the  most 

All  should  possess,  but  I  your  lover  alone, 

To  hold  in  mockery;  all  that  the  most  I  loved, 

Lost  to  me  only — this  I  could  forgive. 

But  that  with  the  old.  sweet  look  of  the  eyes,  how  oft, 

>een  how  often  in  the  great  days  before!) 
You  sought  to  lure  me  to  so  much  less  than  this. 
One  with  the  rest,  the  vilest  and  the  most  mean; 
O  sweet,  even  with  those  eyes,  my  pride,  my  youth, 
My  Springtime  once,  and  the  heaven  of  all  my  prayer! 
A/e,  who  had  given  my  love  of  life  away 
To  save  you  from  tin-  least  touch:  this  broke  my  heart. 


TIIK  ANGEL  RETURNS 
AGAINST  my  shoulder  you  leaned  your  head. 

You  closed   the   page   of    the   silent    book. 

itnnge,   ^till   twilight   al>out    us   spr 
I   felt  your  presem-e  around  me  shrd. 

Your  Ix-auty  trembled,  your  body  shook. 
-    Against  my  shoulder   I    !'«  It  your  head. 


190 

Almost  around  me  it  seemed  to  steal, 

For  one,  sweet  respite  that  little  hour, 
The  self  that  I  longed  for  you  to  reveal, 
Almost  about  me  I  seemed  to  feel 

Your  whole,   sweet  womanhood   break  into  flower 
— The  self  that  I  loved  I  seemed  to  feel. 

An  angel  once  was  sitting  beside  me: 

— Till  sudden  I  wake  at  those  words  you  said, 

The  heart  that  mocks  and  the  lips  that  deride  me — 
Where  is  the  face  of  the  angel  fled? 
O  life  that  I   loved  so  are  you  dead ! 

— Who  is  this  ghost  that  sits  beside  me? 


SONG  FOR  A  JIG 

I  HAD  a  sweet,  a  pretty  sweet — 
But  O  she  did  deceive  me! 

I  found  her  on  another  breast. 
Ah  cruel  t'was  to  leave  me. 

Alas  I  gave  her  all  my  youth, 
Nor  ever  had  I  guessed  it — 

All  that  I  loved  in  all  the  world 
That  all  the  world  possessed  it. 

"O  sweet,  what  refugr  is  there  left 

If  all  was  known  before  me — 
And  is  it  true  there  was  no  love 
In  all  the  love  you  bore  me, 


191 

"And  is  it  true  that  every  kiss 

\Va.s  mockery  the  merest — 
And  were  you  never  really  mine — 
My  darling — O  my  dearest: 

"What  makes  your  eyes  so  merry,  dear, 
What   makes  your  lips  so  cheery, 

When  all  the  heart  within  is  dead, 
And  all  the  world  is  dreary  !" 

To  do  as  though  I  did  not  can 

It  was  my  mood  and  pleasure: 
Around  the  room,  amid  the  rest 

I  danced  a  jolly  measure. 

But   though   my    feet  deceive  you,  sweet, 

My   heart   cannot  deceive  you. 
Though  Love  you  left  forevermore, 

Yet    I.o\e    will    never  leave  you. 


DISCORDS 

You  flung  the  window  full  into  the  light 
Of  sunset  widening  o'er  the  golden  roov.  . : 

A   sin.-l-    organ  jan-l'd    from  the  square 
Full   in  the  radiance  the  hushed  city  lay. 

()  then   for  the  one  time  the  iron  mask 

Fell   from  the  woman's  h«--irt.  wMe  arms  you  spread 

Of  longing,  with   an   inarticulate  er\  . 

And  a  new  wonder   reached  through  all  your  face. 


192 

Each  tress,  each  loop,  each  wave  and  line  of  you, 
Your  very  self,  girlish  and  grave  you  stood, 
Defiant  and  mysterious  to  the  end. 

Silence  prevailed:  but  Tony  looking  up, 
Doglike,  with  baffled  eyes  into  your  own, 
Restively,  with  a  troubled  cry  arose. 

Pity  you  would  not.  you  could  never  bear. 
Then  flashed  the  anger  from  your  eyrs  with  tears 
Suddenly  dimmed,  your  sweet  hands  clenched  in  rage, 
As  agony,  you  spurned  him  with  a  blow. 

Slrirp  cries  of  pain,  ridiculous,  rent  the  air. 
The  organ  faded,  the  wide  light  went  out, — 
Westward  the  beauty  withered  line  on  line. 


THE    TWO   SELVES 

IN  the  hush  of  the  morning  my  heart  lies  dreaming 

Of  the  old  self  that  you  used  to  be, 
I  feel  the  self  of  your  early  beauty 

Hciid  at  my  bedside  over  mr. 
Of  the  self  that  I  loved  my  heart  lirs  drraininir. 

Kurydice  once  came  up  through  the  darknrss. 

When  one  looked   I  nek-ward  witli  longing,  and   lo 
It  ebbed  from  his  arms  the  whole  sweet  beauty  ! 

Remembering,    I    look  backward  so: — 
The  face  beloved  sinks  back  in  the  darkness. 


193 
Vainly,  vainly  I  try  to  remember 

The  old  sweet  look  of  the  eyes  and  head. 
The  self  that  you  are  comes  up  between  us, — 

And  O,  my  dear,  I  would  I  were  dead! — 
The  morning  dawns,  but  I  try  to  remember. 


A  GLIMPSE  OF  HER 

AROUND  about  us  the  dusk  city  lay 
Before  we  parted.     In  the  sunset  light, 
Your  arms  filled  up  with  flowers  gathered  in 
That  afternoon  from  country-ways,  you  stood. 

Shy  looking  up,  some  urchin  of  the  street 

lor  our   stray  blossom  begged,  which  stooping  down 

You  granted  him,  and  then  with  suddenness 

Your  whole  sweet  wealth  of  beauty  gave  away; 

O  bounteous.  O  most  adorable, 

Transfigured  there  in  one  swift  act  of  love  ! 

You  turned  to  go,  but  from  your  lips  escaped 
Some  joke,  too  sordid  and  too  mean  for  you, 
For  vour  magnanimous  and  gracious  ways, — 
Hurting  th«-  In-art,  too  trivial,  too  mean. 

O  you    unwilling,  you   most    willful   our! 

0  you  v.-id   mystery,  you  riddle,  you! 

1  hrard   your   laughter  dying  down  the  street . 


191 

THE  LOST  PARADISE 

MY  own  is  like  a  desolated  house, 

Where  Love  and  Faith  lie  dead, 
A  garden  in  the  Springtime  of  the  year 

With  all  her  flowers  shed, 
Beauty  and  laughter  in  her  face  abide, 

Only  the  heart  is  dead. 

Love  came,  and  weary,  at  the  golden  gate 

Pleaded  to  enter  in, 
A  mournful  laughter  greeted  him  with  jeers 

And  ghosts  of  subtle  sin 
Drew  him  across  the  threshold,  with  a  kiss 

Lured  him  to  enter  in. 

O  had  he  only  come  a  space  before 

To  take  her  by  the  hand ! 
Even  yet,  perhaps,  even  yet  they  might  have  stood 

Safe  in  the  wonderland — 
Even  yet  they  might  have  entered — nevermore 

Now,  will  she  understand. 

Faintly  she  strove  to  ape  a  little  love, 

But  in  her  eyes  he  read 
Only  a  ghastly  hint  funereal, — 

O  sweet,  and  are  you  dead  ! 
O  sweet,  and  is  your  bosom  but  a  tomb — 

Alas,  and  are  you  fled ! 


195 
Fair  is  her  face  and  flowerlike  to  \  i<  \v 

Of  roses  white  and  red, 
Her  eyes  are  full  of  memories  to  Love, — 

Only  the  heart  is  dead, 
A  garden,  an  abandoned  Paradise, 

Whose  angels  all  are  fled. 


A  DANCE  WITH  DEATH 

"Gooo-BY,  good-by.  forever!" 
Across  your  throat  you  drew  it, 
The  quaint,  enameled   curio, 
My  carve -n  Arab  knife, 

With  many  a  mocking  gesture: 
When-  the  white  throat  had  rested 
Clung  OIH    swert  drop  of  life-blood 
\\'arm  from  your  living  In-art. 

Till  far  from  you,  you  flung  it, 
And  danced  around  alxmt  me. 
And  filled  the  room  with  laughter, 
To  mock  my  sober  eyes. 

The  Sunday  brlls   w<  re   ringing 
In  through  the  open  window, 
The  city  in  the  sunlight 
Basked,  as  if  asleep. 


196 

O  wanton,  wild  and  wondrous, 
O  tragic  and  most  youthful, 
For  a  playtime,  for  a  pastime, 
To  feign  a  dance  with  death  ! 

Still  on  the  blade  the  stain  lies, — 
Your  young,  sweet,  reckless  life-blood 
"Good-by,  good-by,  forever  !"- 
I  hear  your  mocking  voice. 


ON  AN  OLD  PICTURE 

LOOK  on  this  picture,  Love,  for  this  is  she 

Whom  now  we  serve,  ere  the  first  virgin  grace 
Had  left  the  earnest  innocence  of  the  face, 

Or  shame  had  weighed  the  lips  down  wearily. 

She  stands  before  you  in  pure  girlish-wise, 

Brave,  with  a  breast  immaculate  like  the  Spring's, 
Full  of  sweet  pity  and  all  tender  things, — 

And  fronts  the  future  with  undaunted  eyes 

Pure  as  the  day's  ere  dusk  has  made  them  sad. 
Ah,  Spring  and  her  flowers  return  as  once  before, 
But  this  one  face  returns  not  any  more: — 

A  little  phantom  with  firm  eyes  and  glad, 

Wistful, — a  little  eager,  innocent  ghost 

That  hate  has  robbed  you  of  and  lust  has  slain 
Forevermore !     Look  on  this  face  again, 

O  Love,  for  this  is  she  whom  you  have  lost! 


197 
AN  ANGEL  IN  HELL 

I  SAW  one  drag  her  loveliness  along 
Painfully   through   the  twilight  of  the  street, 
'Mid  wanton  gibes  and  buffeting  of  men. 

I.aughal.le  were  her  motions,  where  she  went 
Laughter  of  mockery  greeted  her  with  jeers : 
Once  through  the  deepening  distances  she  turned, 

ng  the  eyes  Of  one  that  followed  on;— 
I. o  -that  look   I   had  seen  it  once  before 
Shine  from  the  dearest  face  in  all  the  world! 

Ah.  the  look  th.-it  Iure>  in  a  woman's 

Meant   for  her  lover's  heart,  and   his  alone 

^gging  ^om  every  face  that  hurried  past ! 

I.au-h-.Me  were  her  motions,  where  she  went 

ier  of  mockery  greett -d  h«-r  with  jeers 

Hut.  O.  she  had  the  eyes  of  my  first  1 


AN  AUGUST  NIGHT 

ONC-K   upon  a  night,  a  starry  night   in   August, 
I.yinir  on  my   Led.  wrapt   in   lonely  dreams. 

Broke  a  slender  figure  in  upon  my  dreaming 

Touched  me  on  the  eheek.  tried  to  say  good-by. 


198 

Like  a  ghost  it  was,  yet  knew  I  it  was  living, 

'Round  about  its  brow  clung  a  crown  of  thorns 
And  the  eyes  were  brave  but  sad  and  very  tired,— 

Felt  I  it  had  come,  then,  to  say  good-by. 

Close  against  my  heart  I  caught  it  full  of  longing, 

And  it  offered  me,  willing,  weary  lips 
As  of  old,  upon  them  the  bitter  tears  I  tasted. 

Then  I  knew  'twas  he,  km  w  it  was  my  Youth. 

At  its  feet  I  fell  and  begged  it  for  forgiveness, 
But  it  only  turned  back  into  the  dark: 

But  it  was  too  proud  and  weary  to  make  answer, 
Only  lifted  up  ever  listless  lips. 

Till  it  clung  and  held  me  as  a  little  child  might, 
Covered  me  with  kisses,  covered  me  with  tears, 

Sobbed  against  my  breast  in  passionate  abandon ; 
And  without  a  sound  vanished  in  the  gloom. 

Struggling    from    my    dream    I    groped    toward    the 
window, — 

The  city  in  the  night  lay  august  and   dead, 
All  the  sultry  street  was  heavy  with  veiled  odors,— 

Suddenly  you  passed,  Tony  at  your  side. 

Soft  across  my  face  a  breath  of  musk  and  perfume 

Swept,  beneath  the  lamp  back  you  turned  a  while 
Then  I  knew  the  face,  the  face  that  I  had  dreamec 

of,- 

Almost  as  one  dead  to  mine  eyes  you  seemed 


199 

For  a  single  moment !     You  passed  into  the  darkness, 
Like  a  fallen  angel  groping  for  return, 

Or   a    little    u'host    across    the    somber   eitv 
Wandering  ever  on,  seeking  its  own  soul. 


LOVE  KNOCKS  AT  THE  DOOR 

IN  the  pain,  in  the  loneliness  of  love 

To  the  heart  of  my  sweet  I  fled. 
I  knocked  at  the  door  of  her  living  heart, 
"Let  in — let  in — "  I  said. 

"What   seek  you  here?"  the  voices  cried, 

"You  seeker  among  the  dead"- 
"Herself  I  seek,  herself  I  seek, 
Let  in — let  in!"  I  said. 

They  opened  the  door  «.f  her  living  heart. 

Hut  the  core  thereof  was  dead. 
They  opened  the  core  of  her  living  heart — 

A   worm  at  the  core  there  fed. 

"Where  is  my  sweet,  where  is  my  sweet?" 

"She   is   gone  away,  she   is   fled. 
I.on;r  years   a^o   -die   tied  away, 
She  will  never  return,"  tin  v  said. 


200 

"FLOWERS  FOR  LOVE  OR  DEATH" 

SOFT  flowers,  dear,  I  press  into  your  hand. 

Sweet  as  your  face  is  sweet, 
Shy  buds  and  blooms  the  wayward  Springtime  sheds 

For  a  sacrifice  at  your  feet. 

Your  eyes  look  up  to  mimic  the  old  way — 

But  O  their  light  is  fled— 
It  is  as  if  into  your  hands  I  press 

Flowers  for  one  long  dead. 

LOVE  IN  HELL 

"LovES  me/'  and  "loves  me  not/'  with  careless  hands 
From  the  soft,  wounded  flower-face  you  tore 
The  petals,  falling  'round  you  one  by  one. 

Impatient,  ere  the  last,  sad,  tell-tale  leaf, 
And  guessing  some  denial  ere  you  knew, 
Into  the  flames  you  tossed  it  with  a  jest. 

The  shuddering  flower  writhed  amid  the  flare. 
Lo, —  her  miscounted  petals,  one  by  one, 
Whispering  a  "loves  you"  from  the  heart  of  hell ! 


HEAVENWARDS 

WITH  rapture  of  longing 
I  lift  you  above 
To  the  heaven  of  love, 

With  surging  and  thronging 


201 
Wide  wings  of  my  anguish 

StCftimd  upward  to  save, 

lilt  you  up  from  the  grave 
Where  living  you  languish! 

Let  my  love  be  as  dew  to  you, 

Quicken  and  heal: — 

O  my  perished  one,  feel 
My  live  longing  thrill  through  to  you! 

Have  I  not  thrilled  you, 

Warmed  you,  and  pressed 

Your  breast  to  my  breast, 
With  my  ecstasy  filled  you, 

Caught  you  up  here  to  me 

Close  at  my  cheek? 

Speak  to  me — speak 
Some  word  of  sweet  cheer  to  me ! 

Nay — 'tis  a  ghost, 

The  horrible  head 

On  my  bosom  lies  dead, — 
The  life  that  I   lost. 

O  radiant  and  ravishing, 

Lovely  enough, 

'Tis  a  ghost  that  I  love! 
O  radiant  and  ravishing! 


202 

Hushed  the  dim  weight 
On  the  heart  of  my  breast 
I   bear  without  rest, 

The  horror  I  hate. 

The  winds  follow  after: 
Embracing  I  bear 
The  lovely  despair, — 

Heaven  rings  with  my  laughter, 

"  'Tis  a  ghost  that  I  love ! 
'Tis    a   ghost  that  I   love !"- 

On  my  bosom  I  bear  it 
To  heaven  above. 


A  WOMAN'S  HANDS 

YOUR  hands  are  still  unchanged  for  all  of  you, 
Tired  they  look  and  worn,  but  still  the  same — 
The  memory  to  me  of  your  very  self. 

Much  have  they  suffered  and  much  bitter  guilt 
Has  visited  them,  but  left  them  all  unstained : 
Still  the  old  gracious  innocence  they  have, 
Their  maiden  purity  and  mute  appeal. 

O  bounteous  hands  that  have  given  their  all  away 
To  lips  that  spurned  them  even  as  they  took ! 
Dear,  generous  hands,  compassionate  and  brave, 
Fashioned  to  hold  against  the  lips  of  life 
The  cup  of  the  lovely  kindness,  wondering! 


203 
Dear,  gentle  hands  of  the  sacrificial  scars, 

After  all  shame  and  violence  virgin  yet, 

Inviolable,  mysterious  to  the  end, — 

I  know  you  still,  the  sacred,  the  woman's  hands ! 


MEMORY'S    TOUCH 

I  SAT  beside  you  after  the  division 
Of  many  clouded  days  of  fatal  portent, 
I  da  red  not  litter  to  your  heart  that  knew  not 
The  ominous  hint  that  in  my  heart  I  bore. 

For  I  was  sorrowful  and  very  tired, 
The  tragic  twilight  closed  around  about  us: 
I  could  not  love  you  as  I  once  had  loved  you, 
That  hitter  meaning  in  those  shameful  eves. 

Alas,  across   our   love   a    somber  shadow 
Had  cast  its  wings  of  hovering  disaster, 
And  to  a  dream  of  terror  and  foreboding 

Our  life  of  hue  irai  likened  from  the  first! 

Beside  your  phantom  and   your  haunted  body 
Mysrlf.  a  phantom,  sat  amid  the  darkness: 
I  heard  the  autumn  rain  across  the  window, 
The  twilight  deepened,  it  was  time  to  go. 

I  heard  the  autumn  rain  across  the  window, 
"Ah.  could    I    hut   airain  with  eves  of  wonder 
Look  up  into  that   face  so  sweet  and  tin  d. 
The  guileless  beauty  that    I    lo\ed    1><  fore  .'" 


204 

Alas,  my  cold  caresses  were  all  loveless 
And  cold  the  lips  that  trembled  to  deceive  you, 
I  pressed  you  like  a  ghost  against  my  bosom, 
Half-trembling  through  the  anguish  of  my  tears. 

And  to  your  face  that  strove  so  hard  to  mimic 
Some  look  of  the  old  rapture,  as  I  took  it 
Returned  a  shadow  of  the  old,  brave  beauty 
The  eyes  had  shone  with  in  the  days  before. 

Ere  all  their  grace  was  turned  into  a  pleading, 
And  all  their  dear  commanding  to  derision. 
O  sweet,  not  guessing,  arduous  and  urgent, 
You  drew  me  up  against  your  very  side ! 

Abashed  we  sat  and  full  of  weary  hatred: 

What  voice  was  that  that  called  so  soft  between  us, 

As  if  to  lead  us  back  again  together? — 

The  voice  of  Love  that  calls  his  children  home, 

His  sulky  children  with  immortal  sorrow. 
O,  hark — that  pleading  touch  upon  the  window 
Of  possibilities  and  poignant  have-beens, 
Dim  rain  and  darkness,  solitude  and  love! 


BEHIND  THE  MASK 

THE  music  danced  and  laughed  aloud, 
The  music  laughed  and  cried  aloud, 
You  stepped  into  the  whirling  dance 
With  gay  and  weary  eyes. 


205 

You  laughed  and  san^,  \ ou  danced  ;iud  sang, 
The  music  laughed  and  danced  and  sang — 

Your  In-art   upon  anothrr's   heart, — 
The  music'  laughed  and  cried. 

I  see  you  still,  I  hear  you  still, — 
It  was  not  you  that  danced  at  all, 
I  knew  it  all,  I  knew  it  all, 
Alas,  my  sweet,  alas! 


THE  DEAD  SELF 

Yor  show  me  tlir  pic-tun-,  tin-  old  dim  picture, — 
The  look  of  your  face  in  the  earlier  years, 

Tin-  l>ra\v.  bright  eyes  and  the  quiet  forehead, — 
Sudden  the  room  swims  'round  in  tears. — • 

I  see  the  face  of  the  faded  picture. 

The  breath  of  your  bosom  comes  harder  and  faster. 

Closer  against  me  you  sink  your  head, 
As  one  long  dead,  together  we  weep  it, 

As  one  that  is  slain,  as  one  that  is  fled, — 

Your  eyelids  flutter,  your  breath  comes  faster. 

Bravely  your  eyes  look  up  to  meet  me, 

Bravely,  to  mimic  the  old.  sweet   way: 
But  the  look  is  fh  d  and  the  eyes  are  altered, 

The  room  lies  dead.      Tin  -re  is  nothing  to  say. — 
Thi-re  is  something  missed  in  the  eyes  that  meet  me. 


206 

In  the  April  rapture,  the  glory  of  Springtime, 

Cheated  and  dumb  two  ghosts  we  lean, — 
The  face  that  is  fled,  the  face  that  is  vanished 

Laughs  like  an  innocent  child  between. 
I  hear  a  sob  in  the  music  of  Springtime. 


THORNS 

\ 

You  reached  your  arms  out  to  the  little  child, — 
Some  tousled   rascal    tumbling  down  the  street, — 
A  hopeful  longing  flooded  all  your  form 
And  the  old  tenderness  your  eager  eyes. 

Your  hands  were  full  of  roses  as  you  stooped 
To  take  him, — to  your  heart  you  caught  him  up, — 
Full  of  sweet  roses  like  yourself;  the  thorns 
Hurt  the  small  body  that  spurned  you  with  a  cry. 


LOVE'S  CRY 

"O  GIVE  me  of  the  bounty  of  your  being, 
Your  very  love,  your  uttermost  compassion ! 
I  faint,  I  fail,  for  loneliness  I  perish — 
O  take  me  to  yourself  and  fold  me  in, 

"Safe  in  the  healing  quiet  of  your  bosom, 
Beyond  the  world  and  all  her  hollow  hatred  ! 
O  be  the  sell    niv   Imr  of  you  would  have  you, 
Hush  with  yourself  my  bitter  doubt  of  you !" 


207 

Across  my   lips  she  laid   her  lips  /ill   lovel.-ss 

With   bitter  kisses  and  unmeaning  laughter. 

With  many  :i  lure  to  ape  the  immortal   pity 

And  elieat  Love's  sorrow  with  a  little  lust, 

To  darken  the  wet  lids  of  Love  with  laughter. 
"Alas,  and  are  you  one  with  all  the  others ! 
O  love,  my  love,  and  what  of  all  my  loving! 
O  sweet,  I  hate  you,  and  I  spurn  you  here !" 


LOVE'S    ANGER 

Too  late  it  is  now,  dear,  to  love  you — 
Your  body's  sorrowful  shame, 

Your  loveliness   all  desecrated 

And  those  eyes — ah,  no  longer  the  same ! 

The  virgin  self  deep  within  you 
I  loved,  that   is  vanished  and  fled. 

:-t.  that    I   once  illicit   have  loved  so! 
O  life   that    I    loved   are  you  dead! 

Who  murdered  my  best  beloved 

And  stole  me  my  love  away, 
Or  ever  my   heart   had   known  it, 

Or  ever  my   lips  could   say? 

I  knock  at  your  breast  like  an  angel 
At  heaven's  nnopening  door — 

No  \oice  of  the  old  self  within  you 
Makes  answer  forevermore. 


208 

I  beat  at  your  breast  like  an  angel 

At  the  portals  of  Paradise, 
And  a  hint  of  the  lost,  sweet  girlhood 

Looks  up  at  me  out  of  your  eyes : 

As  a  memory  from  an  old  picture 
Looks  up  at  one  full  of  grace. 

Your  earnest  and  innocent  spirit, 
The  old,  sweet  look  of  the  face. 

It  is  gone,  it  is  vanished  forever: 

But  enough  I  have  read  there  to  know 

How  much  I  could  love  M>U.  my  lost  one, 
Could  I  have  you  as  long  ago. 

Ah,  be  what  I  fain  would  have  thought  you, 
Or  I  perish,  I  fail,  I  am  lost! 

And  have  you  no  comfort  to  give  me, 
But  this  cold  smile  like  a  ghost, 

No  tenderness  for  my  sorrow, 
No  love  to  answer  and  greet! 

O  would  that  I  never  had  known  you — 
O    my  slain  one,  my  sorrow,  my  sweet! 

Would  that  I  never  had  known  you, 
Would  that  your  body,  my  child. 

Were  scattered  abroad  to  the  heavens, 
Rescattered  and  undefiled ! 


209 
Where  perished  and  re-arisen, 

Virgin  again  and  free, 
A  wave  in  the  wave-ways  of  ocean, 

A  star  from  the  streams  of  the  sea ! 


A  SONG 

SWEET  she  is  and  full  of  fleetness, 
Like  a  flash  of  summer  lightning, — 
Beautiful  and  swift  and  blinding — 
In  the  tragic  night, 

That  reveals  the  shy  recesses 
Of  some  undiscovered  forest, — 
The  dim  coverts  of  her  being, 
Odorous  with  dusk. 

Like  a  little  mournful  wild-rose, 
Full  of  lovely,  luring  petals, 

Bitter  thorns  and  wounding  beauty, 
Piercing-sharp,  but  sweet ! 


A  LAST  APPEAL 

T\KK  these  flow.  rs.  d<  ar.  and  at  your  holy 
lY.-t    I    fall  and   Ix-j;  you   for  fori:i\  nirss. 
Let  me  here  a^  linst  your  quirt  bosom 
Weep  my  heart  out  in  a  wastr  of  trars! 


210 

O   could    I   but  oner   ;iu,iin    awakr   you! 
O  my  own,  if  love  of  you  could  heal  you, 
Feel  my  love  that  trembles  here  to  save  you, 
Feel  my  living  love  around  you,  feel ! 

As  one  crazed,  some  voice  beloved  addresses, 
Half -remembered  from  old  days  of  gladness, 
Even  as  one  dead,  upon  your  dumbness 
Beats  my  anguish  like  a  wasted  wave. 

Wildered  the  strange  eyes  look  up  to  greet  me, 
And  the  answer  from  the  breast  is  vanished: 
In  the  poor,  pale  hands  so  mute  and  helpless 
Rest  the  hopeful  flowers  of  my  prayer. 


BITTERNESS 

IN  the  night  of  the  city,  the  silence  supreme, 
Love  stands  all  discrowned  of  the  beautiful  dream. 
Love's  heart  cries  out  to  the  heaven  above, 
"Give  back,  give  back  the  heart  that  I  love ! 

"City,  give  back  the  heart  you  have  slain, 
The  life  that  you  robbed  me  of  give  me  again ! 
And  you  that  have  murdered  some  heart's  best  beloved, 
What  will  you  give  me  for  all  that  I  loved?" 

The  silence  around  is  the  silence  of  Fate. 
The  heart  of  Love  sobs  in  the  anger  of  hate. 
Love  lifts  the  rage  of  his  hands  to  the  sky. 
The  heart  of  Love  breaks  in  a  passionate  cry. 


211 
PARTING   ON    A    BIRTHDAY 

AI.I.  happiness  and  love  I  would  wish  you.  sweet, 
Now  that  my  lift'  must  Iravr  you.  on  this  day 
That  brought  your  dr-ir  fare  earthward  on  its  way — 

And  shed  my  love  as  a  sacrifice  at  your  feet. 

All  joy  and  triumph  I  wish  you  ere  we  part, 

Now  that  the  Spring  blooms  the  whole  world  around, 
And  all  glnd   lives  and  all  glad  loves  abound, — 
in  your  heart  that  hangs  here  at  my  heart. 

.Id  I  could  give  you  a  better  gift  than  t! 
May  beauty  abide  with  you  through  all  your  days, 
And  Spring  fall  ever  with  kindness  on  your  face, 
As  my    hue   now   in   tin-   wild   prayer  of  a   kiss! 

So  bending  down  as  in  the  glad  days  before 
I  touch  you,  like  a  spirit  in  passing  by, 
F.\»n   as  one  already  dead  I  cry, 

"I  love  you" — and  leave  you  then   forevermore. 


THUNDEB   AND   LIGHTNING 

\\  M.KIN.,  through  the  in-   idi.ws  on  a  summer  morning, 
From  »!,(    slorm  afar  sudden  breaks  a  gh-am 

Flashed  of  lovely  lightning,  reekhss  and  defiant. 
Laughing  for  delight,  like  your  living  self. 


212 

Then  I  thought  of  you,  dear  angel  of  my  boyhood, 

I  remembered  then  all  the  weary  days. 
All  the  bitter  sorrow  and  all  the  bitter  longing, 

Vanished  like  a  cloud,  vanished  like  a  dream. 

O  dear  self  I  love  so,  that  I  sought  and  longed  for, 
In  your  living  breast  loved  and  sought  in  vain, 

Shall  I  ever  meet  you  in  your  native  beauty, 
Clasp  you  to  my  heart  as  you  truly  are! 

Darker  grows  the  storm  that  echoes  back  no  answer. 

Breaks  a  flash  of  lightning  through  the  deeps  afar, 
Like  your  very  self,  reckless  and  defiant, 

Laughing  for  delight  far  above  it  all ! 


FIRST  NEWS 

SPRINGTIME  was  clamorous   in   the  woodlands   'round 

And  all  the  earth  with  flowers.     Life  at  the  lips 

Of  the  old  rapture  leaned,  when  first  I  heard 

The  piteous  tidings  of  you  far  away — 

O  foolish  heart  and  most  adorable 

Self-slain,  alas,  sweet,  with  your  own  sweet  hand ! 

Tin  n  1  remembered  that  last  walk  we  had 
In  the  last  Springtime:  April   at  the  world 
Hung  like  a  bride,  the  country  near  and  far 
Shone  with  a  wistf illness  most  young  and  grave 
And  tender,  her  sweet  shyness  thrilled  the  air 
Like  a  child's  whisper.      The  first   budding  shoots 
Yearned  to  you  dumbly  where  you  went,  the  trees 


21S 

Reached   tremulous  finders,  .-md  tin-  whole,  kind   heart 

Of  the  young  Springtime  yearned    to  you   and   .sighed. 

Where  you  passed  careless,  alien  and  blind. 

'Mid  all  her  Children  the  one  banished  one. 

Lost  md  d.  fi ant.      Yea,  amid  the  sweet 

Rare,  virginal   loveliness  that  lay  around 

Some  memory  sad  and  touch  of  tawdry  things, 

A  breath  of  the  dim  city,  your  very  self, 

You  brought   with  you.  Uaring  within  your  breast 

That  murdered  girlhood,  all  those  memories: 

The  wounded  Howers  at  your  feet  looked  up, 

And  a  new  sadness  darkened  all  the  Spring. 

Your  young.  sweet   beauty  filled  me.  but  your  words 

Shy  and  defiant,  guarding  all  their  woe, 

Some  hint  let  slip,  some  secret  evermore 

Of  shameful  things  aeeepted  carelessly. 

Taken  for  granted,  all  that  outraged  youth 

Following  like  a  ghost. --O  strange  and   sad 

It  clung  about  you  like  a  .shadow  there. 

That  murdered  girlhood  tawdry  and  unsublime! 

Then   I. me.  e\ «  n  as  the  Spring,  ijrew  dark  and  drear, 

•ILT  with  helph  ss  wings  against  a  tomb; 
Faded  the  Ix-auty  from  his  eyes  and  all 
II  s  whole  irl  :d   ^pirit   of  youth  was  ebbed  away. 
And  all  his  being  blinded,  his  heart   subdued 
To  the  de-ad   Loveliness,  uln.sr  arms  about 
Hemmed  in  his  he -s\«  nward  flight,  and  all  his  lips 
Tamed  and  submissive  to  the  sad  lips  that  kiss,  ,1 
His   lips,  all    IOM -less,  and   drank   the  life  out   through. 
All  weak  and  forgetful,  all  the  high  dream  forgot, 


214 

With  all  his  love  at  the  most  loveless  bosom, 

At  the  dear  tragic  breast  dumb  as  a  tomb, 

Faint  in  the  Spring  he  leaned  in  love  with  death. 

Sad  and  despoiled  we  leaned  amid  the  Spring. 

The  sunset  widened,  the  twilight  called  us  home. 

I  remember  still,  among  the  cherry  trees 

You  stood,  the  budding  branches  clung  to  you, 

So  frail  and  sweet,  so  tragic  and  so  dear, — 

One  virgin  flower  at  your  breast!     I  seemed 

To  hear  as  in  your  innocence  they  had  rung 

Once,  to  some  early  lover,  the  last  words 

(All  meaningless  now  and  empty)  of  your  love; 

And  carelessly  I  took  them  as  they  were  worth. 

But  in  the  twilight  about  I  seemed  to  feel, — 
Robbed  of  you  now  and  all  despoiled  long  since, 
The  lovers  of  your  girlhood's  innocent  youth 
That  for  those  words  had  given  their  lives  away. 


LAST  NEWS 

AT  the  door  they  found  you  of  my  empty  chamber, 
Bowed  upon  the  ground  .-ill  that  sacred  head 

In  the  last,  fierce  pang  of  passionate  defiance; — 
Groping  toward  the  sill  both  your  lovely  hands. 

How  had  they  pursued  you,  hounded  you,  and  hurt 
you, 

All  those  fiendish  faces,  hideous  and  abhorred ! 
All  my  whole  heart's  anger  here  goes  out  to  smite  them, 

All  my  hatred  here,  in  one  bitter  cry. 


215 

O  my  own  strayed  angel,  wilful,  wild,  and  wayward, 
After  all  the  hurt,  to  your  home  at  last 

Turned    in    the    great    need,    and    beating    backward 

vainly  ; 
Minr.  still  mine  at  heart,  mine  in  spite  of  all! 


AT  A  BEDSIDE 

I  KNELT  beside  you  where  you  lay  at  rest, 

With  small,  sweet  desperate  mouth  and  folded  hands, 

Purer  and  much  more  virgin  than  the  snow, 

In  the  cold  moonlight  of  immortal  sleep. 

April  was  in  the  air,  but  all  around 

The  laboring  city's  tumult,  rage  and  lust 

Rolled  like  a  sea;  only  within  the  room 

It  seemed  a  part  of  the  drar  Spring  lay  dead, 

Here  at  your  breast,  calm  as  a  moonlit  wave, 

And  the  hushed  heavings  of  her  starry  peace. 

Still  the  eternal  riddle  on  your  face 
Shone,  the  enigma  never  to  be  solv<  <1. 
No  answer  to  that  secret  met  me  there — 
A  little  delicate  figure  without  flaw, 

Defiant  and  mysterious  to  the  end. 


Cleansed  of  all  stain  in  the  clear  fount  of  death, 

-••lit  \ou  iay,  and  very  virginal, 
Hreathless  and  faint,  triumphant  and  serene, 
And  dumb  with  a  new  dignity  at  last. 


216 

Only  upon  the  silence  of  your  lips, 
Tenderly  parted  in  an  unfinished  sigh, 
Only  upon  your  lips  there  seemed  to  rest 
A  thirst  as  if  for  some  immortal  thing: — 
Was  it  for  love  that  you  had  never  known? 


TO  HER 

Hi: ART  of  me,  forgive  me  for  the  wrong  I  wrought  you, 
Angel  of  my  youth,  hear  me  and  forgive ! 

If  I  ever  meet  you  in  the  highest  heaven, 

I  will  kiss  the  blood  from  your  wounded  feet. 


FUNERAL  CHAUNT 

As  a  rose  that  on  the  garden 

Lies  untimely  dead, 
As  a  swallow  ere  the  summer 

You  are  gone  and  fled. 
Carelessly  you  bore  your  sorrow — 

Bitter  sin  and  shame, 
Carelessly,  when  you  were  weary, 

Blotted  out  your  name. 

CHORUS 

As  a  flash  of  lightning, 

Swift  and  sweet  and  bright — 
So  your  heedless  spirit 

Vanished  in  the  night. 


217 

Childlike  and  hut  half-divining 

Through  the  world  you  went, 
Pain  you  found  and  fleeting  pleasure 

Found,  hut  not  content: 
('rut  1  tilings  you  took  for  granted 

And  unlovely  sin, 
And  your  self-deceiving  laughter 

Drowned  the  self  within. 

CHORUS 

But  the  eternal  Beauty 

Harbors  no  disdain, 
Spotless,  to  Her  bosom 

Takes  you  back  again. 

What  worm  was  there  at  the  bud 
Of  your  natal  day, 

What  deep  hardship  drove  you  on 

Down  the  shameful   way  ! 
Many  lovrrs   had  you  known 

And  the  pain  thereof, 
Hut  your  breast  had  never  leaned 

On   the    breast    of    Love. 

CHORUS 

Ah.  yon  n<  ver  knew  them 

The   inunort'il   eyes, 
And  the  sacred  longing 

And   the   saeriliee  ' 


218 

So  your  heedless  laughter  rang 

Down  the  baffling  gloom 
Till  its  echoes  dwindled  out, 

Fading  toward  the  tomb: 
So  at  morning,  like  a  dream, 

Or  a  little  ghost, 
In  the  terror  of  the  dawn 

You  were  drowned  and  lost. 

CHORUS 

So  your  feet  went  blindly 
Down  the  darkness,  sweet — 

But  more  swiftly  after 
Follow  Memory's  feet. 

Wherefore  did  you  hide  yourself 

Thus,  amid  the  night! 
Wherefore  thus  divide  yourself 

From  the  living  light! 
Had  you  waited,  but  a  space 

And  they  might  have  found  you, 
But  a  space  the  saving  arms 

Had  been  laid  around  you. 

CHORUS 

Though  you  turn  your  forehead 
From  the  living  sun, 

We  will  not  forget  you 
Till  our  race  is  run. 


219 

Yt  t  within  the  commonness 

Of  your  tired  heart 
Something  like  an  angel  dwelt, 

Virgin  and  apart, — 
Something  shy  and  fleet  and  rare, 

Holy  and  alone, 
All  unguessed  at  by  the  world — 

To  yourself  unknown. 

CHORUS 

Something  like  the  morning 

When  the  light  is  new, 
Fugitive  and  wistful 

In  the  heart  of  you. 

Something  very  dumb  and  strange, 

Pure  and  undefiled, 
Dwelt  within  you.  virginal 
ll     |     little    child. 

CHORUS 

Thus  alone  we  think  you, 

\<>w  your  d'iy  is   passed, 
amid   the   beauty 

Of  all  Lore  at  last : 


220 

LIGHTNING 

IN  a  dream  I  once  beheld  you 
Throned  amid  a  throng  of  dancers, 
In  your  hand  you  held  a  slender 
Cup  of  foaming  wine. 

All  the  room  was  loud  with  music, 
But  without  heaven's  anger  thundered: 
Lifting  it  you  drank  with  laughter, 
"To  the  death  of  Love!" 

Loud  and  long  they  all  applauded. 
To  the  very  dregs  you  drained  it, 
Drank,  and  dashed  it  down  with  blinding 
Tears : — the  lightning  flashed  ! 


TRANSFIGURATION 

AH,  now  your  beautiful  body 

That  bore  such  tragical  stain, 
Has  slipped  the  robes  of  her  sorrow, 

Cast  off  the  robes  of  her  pain — 
Your  bared  and  beautiful  body! 

The  compassionate  Springtime  has  cleansed  it 
And   bathed    it   pure   as   the   snow, 

Has  healed  it  of  all  its  fevers 
And  washed  it  white  of  its  woe, — 

The  cooling  rainfall  has  cleansed  it. 


-JJ1 

Above  your  grnvr  in  the  Springtime 

I  saw  it,  reborn  again, 
Laugh  up  through  glad  tear-drops,  a  flower 

That  swayed  in  the  wind  and  the  rain, 
Drenched  with  the  love  of  the  Springtime. 


RECOGNITION 

STILL  the  starlight  on  the  meadows 
Slumbered,  ere  the  break  of  morning,- 
Far  away  the  raging  city 
And  her  tumult  seemed. 

All  around  me  like  an  ocean 
Shrilled   the  soft  cicadas'   murmur. 
Far  off  cried  a  little  screech-owl, 
Like  a  wandering  soul. 

Then  I  felt  a  girlish  presence 
Shed  around  me  and  a  perfume 
Breathed  as  from  a  quirt  bosom: 
Moving  like  a  cloud, 

Over  the  still  dews  drew  near  me, 
Luminous,  serene,  and   fragrant. 
Softly,  a  girl-shape  in  shadow, 
And  the  eyes  were  grave. 

All  the  sadness  from  tin-  features, 
All  the  cruelty  had  vanished, 
And  the  t'acr  was  \«  ry  lovely 
Like  a  little  child's. 


222 

The  clear  wind  of  dawn  had  purged  it 
Of  all  ecstasies  and  sorrows, 
Of  all  stain  had  wholly  cleansed  it 
And  all  memories. 

Like  a  cloud  it  drifted  nearer, 
All  around  I  felt  the  aura 
Of  some  self  beloved,  the  garments 
Odorous  with  dusk. 

Then  I  first  beheld  the  angel 
I  had  longed  for,  I  had  loved  so, 
Virgin  as  the  wind  of  morning. — 
'Twas  your  very  soul. 

And  I  reached  my  arms  to  clasp  it, 
But  it  laid  a  silent  finger 
Soft  across  the  lips,  the  eyelids 
Smiled  upon  my  tears. 

Not  a  syllable  it  uttered, 
But  I  saw  that  it  forgave  me. 
Deep  within  the  eyes  I  read  it, 
All  it  would  have  said. 


ESCAPE 

IN  my  songs  my  heart  is  prisoned, 
In  my  songs  my  love  lies  buried, 
Sweet,  alas,  within  these  pages 
Lies  my  living  soul, 


223 

Prisoned  from  you  in  these  poems: 
And  th.-  self   I    strove  to  catch  here 
Dead  it  lies  between  the  letters,— 

All   that    I    have  loved. 

O  my  slain  one,  my  beloved, 
Are  you  lost  to  me  forever ! 
Hlacker  grows  the  storm  above  me — 
Suddenly  beyond, 

Bright  across  the  black,  a  rainbow 
Flashes, — lo,  your  very  presence 
Poured,  a  radiance,  a  promise, 

Shining  spans  afar! 

Through  the  widening  rifts  of  heaven 
Winging  cleaves  a  bird,  my  spirit, 
Singing  runs  along  to  greet  you, 
Lost  amid  the  light! 


TRIUMPH 

TIIF  native  grandeur  of  the  soul, 
Praise  be  to  God  f on  \  •  r! 

Praise  |  .1.  nor  lust,  nor  crime, 

\or  hatred,  nor  the  hand  of  Time, 
Nor  ravage  of  the  years  that  roll — 

No — nor    all    things    forever: 
Not  ugliness,  not  all  the  whole 
Heaped    weight    of    passions    that   control. 
\  >r  temporal   tumult   unsuhlime 
i   crush   out.  wholly.  e\.  r  ! 


VIII 

s<»\<;s  HKYOXD  DEATH 


In   the  l>lind  universe  of  worlds  and  years 

I  am   drowned  out,  extinguished  and  destroyed. 
Only  of  me  then-  lingers  in  the  I'oid 

This  fiery  trail  of  memories  and  of  tears. 

()  all  men  yet  to  be  under  the  ski/! 

O  you,  unborn,  who  yet  shall  read  thin  rhyme! 

Here  is  my  voice  imprisoned  for  all  time, 

This,  that  you  feel  this  moment,  this  is  I. 


227 
CONFESSION 

An,  all  my  life  a  shadow  and  a  ghost 

'Midst   laughing  men  and  weeping   I   have  moved. 

Tin-  human  joy  and  pain    I   have  not   proved — 
And  e\en  those  whom   I   have  lo\<  <1  the  most, 

As  from  afar    I    loved. 

In   moments   of  close  kinship   felt  no  less, 
l;.\en    on    the  bosom  of  love  still   felt  to  be, 
An   isolating   and    old    mystery 

Falls.      a  deep  veil   of  separate   loneliness, 
Between  all  souls  and  me. 

And    now,    below    this    summit    where    I    stand, 
The   sleeping  city   lies  austere  and   grav 
Touched  with  the  first   glamv  of  the  widening  day; 

O  world  of  men.  could  you  but  understand 
All   that  I  long  to  say! 

My    hue  of  you  must   be  my  only  boast, 

Still    powerless,    still    standing    far    aside), 
Alas,  my   life   has  been   as   one   that   cried, 
"I   love  you," — and  then  \  .-unshed  like  a  ghost 
From   the   beloved  side! 


WITHDRAWAL 

'I'm:    ijray    cock    is    crowing, 
The  silence   is   pass,  ,1 
Lo — into  the  Vast 

Tin-  darkness  ebbs   flowing. 


228 

The  lap   of  the   Morning 
Is  heaped  up  with  flowers, 
White  flowers  and  hours 

Her  bosom  adorning. 

Lift  up  your  head — 

Nay,  weep  me  no  more! 
Through  the  dark  door 

I  am  vanished  and  fled. 

Beyond  dreams  and  sleep 
And  the  stars  of  the  dawn, 
With  the  tide  I  am  drawn 

That  ebbs  to  the  Deep. 


PHANTASMIA 

THE  wind  of  morning  has  blown  out  the  stars 
And  the  pale  trees  stir  idly  in  the  Park, 
With  the  deep  quietness  ebbs  out  the  dark 

Beyond  the  dawning  and  the  cloudy  bars, 
Along  the  gray  sky-mark. 

O  what  is  this  dumb  portmt  of  unquiet 

That  creeps  upon  nn-  with  the  growing  day! 
What  promised  music  draws  my  heart  away! 

Bend  closer  and  lean  low  that  I  may  sigh  it, 
Come  close,  that  I  may  say. 


229 

Across  the  edges  of  the  world  a  sinking 
Of  dim  phantasmal  melodies  is  fled: 
Why  will  you  weep  and  bury  your  sad  head! 
Why   will   you   make   your  arms  so  soft  and  clinging, 
l.uamored  of  the  dead  ! 

Beyond   the   windy   and   the   widening   portal 
Of  the   gray,   lonely    and    unmeasured   dawn 
I   move,  my  soul  is  summoned  and  withdrawn. 

I  fade  away  and  I  am  made  immortal, 
I  pass,  and  I  am  gone. 


DESOLATION 

BY  water-ways  and  wharves  and  ruined  docks. 

— Old    sluggish    fen-lands    and    abandoned    ships, 
Poor  ghost,  I  wander  with  complaining  lips. 

By   water-ways  and  wharves  and  ruined  docks. 

Dear  love,  how  well  we  knew  it  long  ago, — 
The  shabby   park  beside  the  old.   gray   port, 
The    lamplit    street    and    the    half-tumbled    fort, 

Dear  love,  how  well  we  knew  it  long  ago. 

Heart-breaking  love  of  the  remembered  days, 

You   cannot    know    how   we   poor  ghosts   return 
To  the  old  haunts  with  hearts  and  lips  that  burn,— 
I  1-  -:rt-brraking   love    of    the    remembered 


230 

In  the  wide  horror  and  the  waste  of  Time 

There  lurks  a  dread  more  deep  than  you  can  guess. 

O   doomed  to  an   eternal   loneliness 
In  the  wide  horror  and  the  waste  of  Time ! 

Even  of  myself,  even  of  myself  afraid — 
Nay — who  is  this  beneath  the  starry  sky 
That  huddles  past,  alas  and  is  it  I, 

Even  of  myself,  even  of  myself  afraid ! 

O  love,  beyond  the  silence  of  what  star, 

What   mystery,    what   bourne,   what   bondage   past, 
Shall    I    forget  those  memories   at   last — 

O  love,  beyond  the  silence  of  what  star! 


LAST  RAPTURE 

ALAS  the  wings  of  morning  are  unfurled! 

Across  the  cloudy  marshland,   bog  and   fen, 
Far,  far  beyond  the  myriad  haunts  of  men 

Here,  on  the  desolate  margins  of  the  world 
The  white  dawn  broods  again. 

Beyond  the  holy  and  the  smoldering  fire, 
Listen — beyond   the  heaven's   utmost  steep, 
Over  the  world  of  terror,  dreams  and  sleep 

There  calls  a  voice  from  the  seraphic  choir 
Into  the  vasty  Deep. 


231 

N«.w  M-ts  the  tide  to  tin-  ordained  and  deathless 
And  the  clear  spirit  to  the  Radiance  clear. 
O  lo\e.  iii  tin-  Hrnk  windy  world's  end  here, 

()  in  this  moment   now,  supreme  and  breathless, 
Desolate,  wild  and  drear, 

The  earnest  stars  fade  flickering  and  shaking 
Through  the  cloud-woven  rifts  of  palest  blue, 
The  wind  of  morning  blows  me  through  and  through 

With  a  wild  joy,  through  all  my  spirit  waking! 
Is  it  the  thought  of  yon  ! 


MORNING-SLEEP 

CAN  you  not  hear  me  now  when  I  call  you  softly, 
Open  your  window,  dear,  I  love  you,  I  love  you ! 
Night  is  deep,  the  heaven  is  starry  above  you. — 

Can  you  not  hear  me  when  I  call  you  softly  r 

Open  your  window,  dear,  I  weary  of  waiting. 

Do  you  remember  the  words  of  the  love  we  plighted  ! 

I  must  Hy  when  the  fire  of  dawn  is  lighted. 
Open  your  window,  dear,   I   weary  of  waiting. 

Ah.  did  you  think  that  I  could  ever  forget  you! 

Hurry  hurry!  (The  robin  has  given  the  warn 
ing). 

Before  tin-  wind  has  kindled  the  fire  of  morning! 
Ah.  did  you  think  that  I  could  ever  forget  you! 


232 

Quiet  you  lie  there  sleeping  under  the  starlight. 
O  the  body  is  passionate,  strong  and  splendid, 
What  care  you  for  me  whose  passion  is  ended ! 

Quiet  you  lie  there  sleeping  under  the  starlight. 

What  do  I  hear — hide  me,  cover  me,  hide  me! 
Pity  me,  love,  poor  ghost  from  a  land  forsaken, 
Gather  me  close ;  O  do  not  let  me  be  taken ! 

What  do  I  hear — hide  me,  cover  me,  hide  me! 

O  it  is  cold,  it  is  cold,  will  you  not  hear  me! 

These  are  the  very  meadows  we  loved  and  walked 
in, 

These  are  the  very  bowers  we  sat  and  talked  in. 
O  it  is  cold,  it  is  cold,  will  you  not  hear  me! 

O  black-hearted!     O  deceitful — O  darling! 
O  you  have  forgotten  me  altogether ! 

0  you  have  forgotten  me  altogether, — 

PHANTOMS 

0  ALL  the  air  is  eager  with  the  Spring, — 

In  the  wet  Park  the  first,  faint  crocus  tips 
Peer  up  out  of  the  ground  in  straggling  strips 
And  all  the  world  leans  forward  quivering 
At  April's  amorous  lips. 

1  am  so  tired.     What  is  that  sound  of  warning?— 

Listen — it  calls  again — Away — away  ! 

1  must  be  gone  with  the  first  breath  of  day. 
One  little  hour  is  left  before  the  morning. 

Cling  to  me — make  me  stay ! 


233 

Gather   in«-   elose.   ()    hold    in,-,   draw    me   nearer! 
is  my  amis  .-ire  witln  red  now  and   weak), 

Kiss    my    lips   dumb   that   are   too  sad  to   speak! 
Dear   love,   be  kind,  the  terrible  east   grows  clearer, 

Lean  to  me,  check  on  cheek  ! 

Lay  your  two  quiet  and  strong  arms  around  me, 
That  am  so  desolate  now  and  so  dismayed, 
Before  I  must  return  into  the  shade 

And  dreadful  night,  before  the  dawn  has  found  me. 
O  sweet,  are  you  afraid ! 

Here  in  the  Springtime,  in  the  April  gladness, 
Lay  your  two  arms  about  me  evermore: 
Here  where  the  riotous  Spring  bursts  April's  door, 

Lay  your  two  arms  al*>ut  me  full  of  sadness, 
As  in  the  days  before. 


Till.    \I.\V   LOVE 

IN    the    silence,    in    the    night. 

When    at   your   window   the  stars  shim-  through, 
Under  the-   starlight,   under  the  shining  light, 

Over  the  fallen  dew, 

I  will  come  to  you. 

O  love,  O  sweet,— 

Not    with    tin-    seeking   passion    of  yore. 
Not    with   the  ea-n  ,-  BJCI   and   th<-  lips  that  meet, 
Banished    for«-\  <  rmore. 
O  not  as  before! 


284 

Having  seen,  having  known 

You,  at  last  as  you  truly 
The  divine  pain  of  the  human,  sad  and  alone, 

Scattered  in  the  deeps  afar 

Star  beyond  star; 

A  deep,  a  new — 

Almost  a  pity  fills  me  now, 
Not  with  the  old  desire  I  turn  to  you, — 

O   I   cannot  tell  you   how ! 

O  I  love  you  now ! 

Dear  heart,  dear  face, 

So  lovable,  so  absurd,  so  dear — 
How  can  I  think  of  you  now  as  in  the  old  days ! 

A  pity,  deeper  and  more  clear, 

Weeps  in  me  here. 

Alas,  alas, 

Not  with  the  seeking  passion  of  yore, 
Bending  down  in  the  night  I  will  kiss  you  as  I  pass 

Once,   and    forevermore. 

O  not  as  before! 


TRANSLATION 

Now,  while  in  heaven  the  sleepless  planets  wheeling 
Down  the  eastern  slope  a  flashing  radiance  shed, 
As  one  that  dreams  I  move  with  noiseless  tread, 

Through  the  old  haunts  and  aisles  memorial  stealing, 
An  exile,  from  the  dead. 


The  avenues   win  re  arm   in   ami  we  strolled. 
The    In  nehes    in    tin-    Park    and    the   long   lawn 
Fade  dimly  of!'  into  the  dark  withdrawn. 

Cupola  and    pagoda   glimmer  cold 
In   the  bleak  breath  of  dawn. 

While  'round  the  world  ebbs  the  deep  silence  stream 
ing, 

And  the  sick  lamps  burn  luridly  and  flare.  — 

A  lion  groans  from  the  casino  there. 
A  lonely  peacock  from  the  hillside  screaming 

Shatters    tlie   crystal   air. 

But  look  —  the  arches  of  the  east  grow  light 

And  the  pun    brows  of  morning  pale  and  dim, 
From   flaming  lips   breaks    the   seraphic    hymn, 

The  holier  fire,  immaculate  and  white, 
Pants  on  the  radiant  rim, 

And    the    huge   city,   dumb  and   undivining, 

Toward  the  great  tenderer  Beauty   seems  to  lean 
In  yearning  silence.      in  the  vast,  serene 

Flame  of  the  splendor  of  the  morning  shining, 
Made  laughable  and  obscene, 

With  all  her  dull,  dark  streets  empty  and  soundl'  -s  ' 
1  ).   ir    In   irt.    for   your   lake,   at    the  thought  thereof 
Heart   breaking    pity    breaks    my    heart;    above 

The  sorrow  of  self  my  soul  soars,  winged  and  bound- 


Into   the   heaven   of   Love, 


236 

Seeing  the  human  and  holy  beauty  blended 

Touch  lips  to  lips  in  the  white  light  of  morn. 

O    lesser   human    brauty    and    laughed   to   scorn, 
I  love  you  more !     O  temporal  and  splendid ! 

0  dust  whereof  I  was  born ! 

What  is  this  love  that  deeply  in  me  waking 
Swells  like  a  sob  for  very  joy  of  pain, 
For  all  sad  human  things  and  all  things  vain ! 

A  passionate  love,  unbounded  and  heart-breaking, 
Not  to  be  felt  again. 

To  myriad  pipes  beyond  the  morning  shrilling 
The  tides  of  sleep  ebb  to  the  unknown  sea. 

1  am  caught  up  and  carried,  far  and  free, 
On  the  wide  waste  of  uttermost  music  thrilling 

Into  Eternity. 

Seek  me  no  more  who  am  beyond  all  keeping, 
Pray  me  no  more  who  am  beyond  all  prayer, 
Beyond  all  love,  all  beauty  and  all  care. 

Weep  me  no  more,  who  am  beyond  all  weeping 
High  up  in  the  starry  air. 

I  am  as  one  whom  the  immortal  warning 

Of  dawn  has  summoned  from  tumultuous  wars, 
Above   earth's  beauty  lifted   and   earth's   scars, 

Drunk  with  the  wonder  and  the  wind  of  morning, 
A  voice  among  the  stars. 


IS7 

SPRING-PRAYER 

Now    I    am    vanished    far 

Into    tht:    empty    land, 
Pray   for  me   with   your  lips 

That  cannot  understand. 

Spring  in  a  shower  of  joy 

Comes  gay  and  rioting; 
Be  sad  a  little   for  me 

Dear,  in  the  laughing  Spring. 

Pity  me  cold  and  gray— 
O  all  the  world  is   glad 

\Vitli   love  and  Spring      hut  you 
Dear  heart,  do  you  be  sad 

A   little  while,  and  sorrow 

Though  all  things  else  rejoice. 
Pray   for  me   with   your  lips 

And  hush  your  singing  voice 

A   little   while.    rein< mix  ring 

How  lost  I  am  and  far. 
B- yond   the   firr  of  morning, 

Star  hi-yiMid  paling  star. 

Pity   with   your    red   lips, 

So  glad    and    tit   to   sing, 
Mine    that    are    hushed    and    eold 

H«  re.  in  the  laughing  Spring! 


238 

SALUTATION 

THE   gray  night   lapsing   from   the   cast  has  left, 
Beyond  the  ebb-tide  on  the  twilight's  bars, 
A  few  sad  remnants  of  her  splendor, — stars 

Upon  the  beach  of  morning;  now  bereft 
Glitters  with  scimitars 

Her  waste,  and  with  the  approaching  spears  of  day. 
Listen,  beyond  the  heavens  deep  and  pure, 
I   hear  a  somber  music  and   obscure ! 

The  flickering  star  of  morning  fades  away. 
Seraphic  voices  lure. 

Why  should  I  mourn  so,  now  that  I  must  leave 
All  the  old  human  pain  I  knew  so  well, 
The   fears,  the   hopes,  holy  and  laughable, 

So  sordid — so  divine!     Why  must  I  grieve! 
Ah  why  I  cannot  tell. 

Never  to  know  again  the  joy  and  sorrow, 

—The  kiss  of  earthly  lips — the  fierce  embrace, 
The  arms  of  children,  the  sad,  human  face! 

Never  in  all  the  irrevocable  To-morrow, 
In  the  vast  voids  of  Space. 

O  sad  humanity,  with  arms  how  wide, 

How  have  I  longed  to  take  you  to  my  heart! 
How  have  I  longed  to  take  you  to  my  heart! 

With  what  fierce  pity  to  press  you  to  my  side 
Against  a  breaking  heart! 


1*0 

I  love  you  with  my  very  inmost  breath — 

The  toil  and  triumph    from   tin-   laboring  womb, 
And   the   glad   passion   that  defies   the  tomb — 

Tin     lust— the    laughter — yea,   and   the    splendor   of 

death. 
Your  holy  and  sullen  doom. 

The  city  sleeps  patient   and  dumb  and   blurred 
Through    the    low    elouds    of   mist   in    square    and 

street, 
(How  many  hearts  K  hind  her  prison  beat!) 

A  stony  desert   where  no  voice  is  heard, 
Or  sob,  or  sound  of  frrt. 

Now  more  than  ever  the  old  human  sadness 
Touches  my  heart  with  longing  vast  and  vain. 
Now   more   tlrin   ever    I    yearn   to  you   again. 

Ah  nevermore  to  know  of  grief  or  gladness! 
Ah  nevermore  of  pain. 

I,  too,  have  borne  them.  I  am  rapt  above  you 
Into  the  heaven  of  hr-m-ns  keen  and  pale. 
(her  my  mouth  falls  the  eternal  veil. 

Hail — all  men  U>rn.  and  yet  to  be,  I  love  you! 
All    men    that  have   been, — Hail! 

TRANSFIGURATION 

STAB    l-yond    star   dr.-p  down    in    the  abysses 

Dawn    floods    the    world    with    fiery    light   again. 

O  darling — ()  beloved      ()  dear   face! 

Think   not    I    ha\e   forgotten   tin-  old   pain 

High   in   this    lonely   j>' 


240 

Some  little  memories  of  the  old  earth  passion 

Still  reach  me  here,  throned  on  the  stars  above  you, 
Some  dreams  of  the  half-love  of  long  ago. — 

O  now  for  the  first  tinu    I   really  love  you! 

0  darling,  now  I  know! 

The  infinite  Vast  grows  white  with  a  new  splendor, 
Heaven  with  the  morning  flames  height  over  height, 

And  a  deep,  holier  love  broods  in  me  too; 

A  deeper  dream,  more  pure  than  all  delight, 

Drowns  the  old  love  of  you, 

Now  that  I  see  it  all.     O  of  a  sudden 

The  dignity  and  the  pitifulness  of  things, 

The  laughable  sadness  of  all  things  that  live, 

Snaps  in  my  soul  the  chord  of  self  that  sings ! 

Dear  heart,  forgive,  forgive. 

1  am  withdrawn  into  the  deeps  of  heaven, 
A  surging  love  lifts  me  beyond  your  love, 

I  am  not  lost  to  you  though  I  am  gone. 

The  thought  of  you  within  me  lifts  me  above 
Myself,    upward    and    on. 

O  dream  which  is  the  purpose  of  Creation ! 

O  infinite  pity,  deeper  than  the  soul, 
Wlirrrin  the  high  and  low  are  one  at  last! 

O  love  wider  than  heaven  or  the  whole 
Sweep  of  the  starry  Vast ! 


211 
NIRVANA 

«'ii.  I   lie  at  heaven's  high  oriels, 
Over  the  stars  that  murmur  as  they  go 
Lighting  your    lattice-window    far   below — 
And  every  star  some  of  the  glory  spells 
Whereof  I  know. 

I  have  forgotten  you,  long,  long  ago, 

I. ike  the  sweet,  silver  singing  of  thin  bells 

Vanished,  or  music  fading  faint  and  low. 
Sleep  on,  I  lie  at  heaven's  high  oriels, 

Who  loved  you  so. 


FAREWELL 

Heyond    the   topmost   star  of   highest   heaven 

And    murmurous    motion    of    the    wheeling   spheres, 
I  am  enthroned  at   last   alxne  the  years, 

I    am   caught   up   beyond   the   shining  Seven. 

My  song  is  ended  and  my  singing  said, 

I'inishtd  Irive  I   with  these  hut  mortal  things; 
My    soul    takes    flight    on    unrememl>cring  wings, 
Heyond   the  fire  of  morning  lost   and   fled. 

Yet  though  no  trace  on  earth  of  me  belongs, 
Still   the  undying  voice  of  me,  my  ghost, 

Pleads    in   the  choir  of  the   eternal    Host, — 
Still  like  a  lin-ath  she  labors  in  these  songs. 


242 

0  yet  in  some  strange  way,  I  know  not  how, 
With  urgent  pity  and  with  aching  love 

She  yearns   to   touch  you   from  her  heaven  above; 
Yea,  in  these  lines  her  longing  calls  you  now. 

Alas,  how  like  we  are,  all  men,  alas! 

0  brother  in  the  universal  doom, 

Even  from  the  womb,  even  to  the  conquering  tomb 
I,  too,  have  lived.     I  hail  you  as  I  pass! 

Now  as  you  read  these  verses  from  afar, 
This   very  moment,   from  this  living  rhyme 

1  call  to  you  out  of  the  wheels  of  Time, 

1  cry  to  you  beyond  the  morning-star! 


HAIL! 

UNDER  the  infinite  tomb  of  heaven  and  night 

Lo — I  am  wafted  away  forever  afar ! 

Deep  between  cloud-line  and  sky-line  one  quiver 
ing  star 
Burns,  like  a  lamp,  in  the  tomb  of  heaven  and  night. 

This,  my  cry  to  you  out  of  the  spaces  afar. 

Once — ere  I  vanish  dissolved  into  motion  and  liu;lit. 

Once — O  peoples  to  be — farewell  and  good-night! 
This,  my  cry  to  you  out  of  the  spaces  afar. 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA  LIBRARY 

This  book  is  DUE  on  the  last  date  stamped  below. 


OCT    20  1947 

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UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA  LIBRARY 


